|
Holden Australia
Websites
Holden
Australia
Holden
Special Vehicles
GM
Holden Ltd is an Australian automaker based in
Port Melbourne, Victoria. The company was originally
independent, but since 1931 has been a subsidiary
of General Motors (GM). Holden has taken charge
of vehicle operations for GM in Australasia and,
on behalf of GM, holds partial ownership of GM
Daewoo in South Korea. Over the years, Holden
has offered a broad range of locally produced
vehicles, supplemented by imported GM models.
In the past, Holden has offered badge engineered
Isuzu, Nissan, Suzuki and Toyota models in sharing
arrangements.
Holden bodyworks are manufactured at Elizabeth,
South Australia, and engines are produced at the
Fishermens Bend plant in Port Melbourne, Victoria.
Historically, production or assembly plants were
operated in all mainland states of Australia:
Acacia Ridge, Queensland; Dandenong, Victoria;
Mosman Park, Western Australia; Pagewood, New
South Wales; and Woodville, South Australia. Until
1990, GM's New Zealand subsidiary Holden New Zealand
operated a plant based in Trentham, with a plant
in Petone running until 1984. The consolidation
of car production at Elizabeth was completed in
1988, but some assembly operations continued at
Dandenong until 1996.
Although Holden's involvement in exports has fluctuated
since the 1950s, the declining sales of large
cars in Australia has led the company to look
to international markets to increase profitability;
in 2006, exports alone accounted for almost AU$1.3
billion in earnings.
Corporate
affairs and identity
As
of February 2009, chairman and managing director
Mark Reuss heads operations at Holden. Executives
of secondary departments include: Alan Batey (Sales,
Marketing and Aftersales), Mark Bernhard (Finance),
Pierre Matthee (Information Systems and Services),
Greg Tyus (Engineering), Rod Keane (Manufacturing),
Richard Miziewicz (Customer Satisfaction and Quality),
Pete Keley (Planning and Program Management),
Raymundo Garza (Global Purchasing and Supply Chain),
Robert Pantano (Executive Director, Holden Program
Management and Director, Global RWD Program Management),
Scott Sandefur (Human Resources), Jason Laird
(Corporate Affairs). Vehicles are sold countrywide
through the Holden Dealer Network (310 authorised
stores and 12 service centres), which employs
more than 13,500 people.
Since
the 1960s, Holden models have been a staple of
domestic touring car racing, and the quasi-factory
Holden Racing Team (HRT) has successfully participated
in V8 Supercar racing. In 1987, Holden Special
Vehicles (HSV) was formed in partnership with
Tom Walkinshaw, who primarily manufactures modified,
high-performance Commodore variants. To further
reinforce the brand, HSV introduced the HSV Dealer
Team into the V8 Supercar fold in 2005 under the
naming rights of HSV Toll Racing.
The logo, or "Holden lion and stone"
as it is known, has played a vital role in establishing
Holden's identity. In 1928, Holden's Motor Body
Builders appointed Rayner Hoff to design the emblem.
The logo refers to a prehistoric fable, in which
observations of lions rolling stones led to the
invention of the wheel. With the 1948 launch of
the 48-215, Holden revised its logo and commissioned
another redesign in 1972 to better represent the
company. The emblem was reworked once more in
1994. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
Profiles
V8
Supercars
Auto
Directory
Motor
Sport
|
