|
 Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell said the brand expects the office,
including display and event space, in the trendy Soho neighborhood
of Manhattan to open around the second quarter of 2015.
GM said the move will establish the brand as a separate business
unit.
“With the relentless upward repositioning of successive
new-generation Cadillac products, the next logical step is to
provide Cadillac more freedom to cultivate the brand in pursuit of
further global growth,” GM President Dan Ammann said in a statement.
Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen, who took over the brand in
August, told the Detroit News that the automaker wanted to put
"distance between Cadillac and the rest of the General Motors
entity."
Reuters previously reported that Cadillac was looking at expanding
to New York. De Nysschen told the News he expected the New York
office to employ about 120 people.
Caldwell said the move would only affect sales and marketing, while
product development, design, engineering and research and
development staff would remain in place, mostly in the Detroit area.
De Nysschen, in his previous role as head of Nissan Motor Co's
7201.T Infiniti brand, relocated the unit from Yokohama to Hong
Kong, in part to give the Infiniti team more autonomy from the
Japanese parent and the opportunity to explore new ways to expand in
global markets.
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GM has been on a similar quest to expand the 112-year-old Cadillac,
one of the world's oldest surviving brands, beyond its home base,
while resurrecting Cadillac's earlier status as one of the world's
top luxury vehicles. De Nysschen is Cadillac's third leader in two
years.
Cadillac said last Friday it would begin production of a new
high-end car by the end of 2015, positioned above today's CTS and
XTS cars.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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