Cadillac News: Cadillac Bids Farewell to New York

[William Maley]

One of the most controversial moves during Johan de Nysschen's tenure as Cadillac President was moving the brand's headquarters from Detroit to New York in 2015. Executives at GM explained at the time this would Cadillac to separate from the day-to-day operations of their mainstream brands - Buick, Chevrolet, and GMC. Sources at the time said another reason for the move came down to various GM executive worrying about Cadillac's worldview from Detroit "was too myopic for a brand with global aspirations."

But Cadillac will be moving out of their space at 330 Hudson Street in New York City back to Detroit. This was revealed by Cadillac's new president Steve Carlisle in a interview with the Wall Street Journal. The reason is that he wants the brand's leaders to be closer to GM’s vehicle design and engineering offices in Metro Detroit, especially considering Cadillac has a number of new and redesign models coming in the next few years.

“We have a huge number of launches ahead of us. We’ve got to think about how we take inefficiencies out of the communication process between the Cadillac team and the GM partners," said Carlisle.

Cadillac confirmed the move in a statement to The Detroit News.

"The move will place the Cadillac brand team closer to those responsible for the new Cadillacs, including design, engineering, purchasing and manufacturing, ensuring full integration of Cadillac’s global growth strategy. Cadillac will maintain a brand presence in New York City with the Cadillac House, an experiential brand center which serves as a public space for events, concerts and collaborative partnerships until longer term brand plans are in place," said the brand.

Cadillac didn't give a timeframe or where the headquarters would be located. Automotive News reports that  U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., released a statement saying the headquarters would be based in Warren, MI - where GM has their technical center. A Cadillac spokesman declined to comment.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required), The Detroit News, Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)

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[Drew Dowdell]

I feel bad for the friends that I have who work at the NYC office and had planned to stay there.  I wonder if they'll shed employees moving from NYC to Warren MI.

[David]

I have to say that efficiencies will be gained by this, but that means layoffs. Personally they should have never moved there, but moved into separate space in Detroit. Course Johan did some things right in regards to quality, but most things I never agreed with him on. Too much of a German wanna be focus rather than fixing and growing the legacy of the American Luxury Auto with Heritage. 

[ccap41]

[smk4565]

I said this was a bad idea at the time.  Johan did nothing right in his time at Cadillac.  And really that is upper management's fault, they didn't know what to do with Cadillac, so they hired  him and he botched Cadillac.  The original "renaissance" started in 2002 and they still haven't figured it out.

[regfootball]

this is probably good.  Caddy didn't change their public perception in any way, even if you argue they didn't have enough time or not.

IMO Cadillac knows they just have a certain piece of the pie, and they won't cannibalize a lot of buyers of other marques so i think this helps them refocus on just who they are serving and their traditional customer base.

[Robert Hall]

Oh well..didn't Lincoln do something like this back when Ford had PAG?  Moved to Orange County---Irvine IIRC...

Edited September 27, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[William Maley]

1 hour ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Oh well..didn't Lincoln do something like this back when Ford had PAG?  Moved to Orange County---Irvine IIRC...

 

[Robert Hall]

And Infiniti moved their HQ to Hong Kong a few years ago..

[daves87rs]

Glad to see they got smart..never should have wasted the money in the first place..

[David]

12 hours ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Oh well..didn't Lincoln do something like this back when Ford had PAG?  Moved to Orange County---Irvine IIRC...

Never knew they were part of the OC, clearly moving them did nothing to change the brand, much like moving Cadillac to NY did nothing. 

11 hours ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

And Infiniti moved their HQ to Hong Kong a few years ago..

Did they ever move back?

[Robert Hall]

2 minutes ago, dfelt said:

 

Did they ever move back?

Not yet.  Been there 6 years.  Was Ghosn's idea for them to focus on the China market.  

Edited September 27, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[David]

23 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Not yet.  Been there 6 years.  Was Ghosn's idea for them to focus on the China market.  

Cool, thanks for the info. I would have to agree as you have a limited market in Japan and elsewhere, but China is the biggest growing market. So makes sense.