[AUTO] Frank Torres, the Nissan 'liquidator' who promised 1,000 jobs in Barcelona

[YaKuZa--BoSs]

The former director faces an "unfriendly" negotiation in front of unions, the Government and the Generalitat

 

 

In trade union and business spheres, it was surprising that Nissan Motors appointed the Spanish Frank Torres to carry out the closure of Nissan Motor Ibérica's industrial activity in Barcelona, scheduled for the end of this year. The appointment also left in an uncomfortable situation who was still CEO of Nissan Motor Ibérica and director of Zona Franca, Genis Alonso.

The Catalan executive in charge of the liquidation of Nissan in Barcelona worked for a decade in the Spanish section of the Japanese company and reached command between 2011 and 2017, a time when his encounters with workers and his unfulfilled promises were sounded, they recall, with which you will have to battle.
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Negotiation with the Spanish administrations is not going to be friendly either, as the Secretary General for Industry and SMEs, Raül Blanco, literally warned last Monday. President Quim Torra also ratified it after meeting with the leadership of the Generalitat. They will be meetings in Catalan, since the liquidator appointed by Nissan is from Tarragona.

The game board is completed by an indignant union part with the world leaders of Nissan and now with Torres and the European CEO, Gianluca de Clichy. "They have ended up killing a brand at a Spanish and European level," said the works council.

BUSINESS HEAD IN RUSSIA
The knowledge of Catalan society, the factory and its iron-clad attitudes - but with a negotiating profile - have made natural selection so that Frank Torres temporarily leaves his office in Moscow, where he has been director of Nissan in Russia since last spring. He landed in Barcelona two weeks ago and now he will have to roll up his sleeves so that the closure of what was his factory develops as the Japanese company intends. Spain has already said that the exit will cost Nissan 1,000 million euros, although it maintains its offer of a permanency plan that Nissan has ruled out.

IT BROUGHT THE PULSAR AND THE NV200
Torres grew like foam at Nissan after he joined the Spanish delegation in 2007 as a Production Engineering analyst. In 2011, he was appointed CEO of Nissan Motor Ibérica SA and remained at the forefront until 2017, when he began to thrive in the European fabric as vice president of Corporate Strategy for Nissan Europe and head of the Office of Management Programs.

During his term in the Free Trade Zone, he achieved the arrival of new models that on the one hand gave him a certain air, but did not free him from breathing a climate of strong union conflict, because they demanded sacrifices from the workers. Unfortunately, one of the models, the compact Nissan Pulsar (2014) was unsuccessful and four years after the start of its manufacture in Barcelona it was removed from the range of the Japanese brand. The Nissan NV200 commercial continues to be produced at the plant, which is barely 20% full capacity today.

UNKEPT PROMISES
What the workers most remember about Torres were his promises that did not come true. He promised a production of 200,000 cars, which was not fulfilled; with the arrival of Pulsar, it executed job cuts in exchange for 1,000 jobs that did not arrive. He promised that number of new jobs again when the factory accepted the manufacture of the Navara and it was not a reality either. Workers at the Ávila plant also complained of a breach by Torres: He promised to manufacture the NT500 truck, which also failed to produce more than 7,000 units.

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