Cadillac targets 11 percent operating margin in 10 years

[April 25, 2016]  By Jake Spring

BEIJING (Reuters) - Cadillac, General Motors Co's luxury brand, is targeting an 11 percent operating margin in 10 years, Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen said on Monday in an interview with Reuters, laying out a timeline for the long-term turnaround of the brand.

"We’ve got about a 10-year runway to get this brand to where it is making the kind of overall contributions to General Motors profitability that Mary (GM global CEO Mary Barra) expects from it," he said at the Beijing autoshow.

He declined to give incremental contributions of Cadillac to GM profits before the 10-year mark.

De Nysschen's remarks reflect the broad leeway he has been given to reinvigorate the Cadillac brand after leaving Nissan's <7201.T> Infiniti to take over leadership for the U.S. brand in 2014, including moving the brand's headquarters from Detroit to posh offices in New York's Soho.

Cadillac has fallen behind German luxury competitors such as Volkswagen's Audi <VOWG_p.DE> and Daimler's <DAIGn.DE> Mercedes in the U.S. market, also trailing them in China after a relatively late entry to the country.

Cadillac is targeting 25 percent growth in China to sell more than 100,000 vehicles this year.

(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Mark Potter)

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