The Volkswagen Group has pledged to ensure that it will keep a supply of genuine parts available to its customers, despite the increasing strictures of the coronavirus crisis and its worldwide lockdowns.
Up to 15,000 sites open
The group's Original Parts Centre in Kassel, central Germany, remains open and is servicing about 60 per cent of the worldwide 25,000 service stations of the company, meaning around 15,000 are available to customers. In its homeland, Volkswagen has more than 95 per cent of its 3,500 service stations open for business and there should be plenty of parts to cope with demand, as the group is reporting an order level sitting at around a third of the normal volume.
Volkswagen insists, though, that it is placing the health of its own employees working at and suppliers to Kassel at the top of its priority list, ensuring that there is adequate social distancing going on and that everyone is complying with the appropriate hygiene requirements. Part of the process has seen the number of people working on logistics at any one time reduced by half.
'Cars more crucial now'
Roman Havlásek, head of Group After Sales, said: "In the coronavirus crisis, many people need their car to travel to work, to provide goods for themselves and other people, and to make necessary visits to doctors. Our customers, who include many people working in the health system and food retailing, have to rely on their vehicle more than ever before as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
"This is why it is so important for our team to maintain genuine parts supplies. This way, service businesses throughout the world can continue to carry out repair work. We would like to thank our large network of suppliers for continuing deliveries to a very large extent under these difficult conditions and the Works Council for their fantastic support in the definition and implementation of the measures required."
Under normal circumstances, around 2,400 people work at the Genuine Parts Centre in Kassel, which is the master depot for parts for all of the Volkswagen Group's associated brands. It supplies components on a 24/7 basis to 86 countries throughout the world, while it has a storage area of 1.2 million square metres. It usually sees 220 trucks, 111 railway wagons and 68 containers leaving the site every single day, although the pandemic has obviously vastly reduced these numbers.