20 years of Volkswagen Group Services GmbH

Our flexibility is what makes us special

20-year anniversary – how are we celebrating it?

Hartmut Rickel:
First of all I would like to wish every one of our employees all the best on this anniversary! My special thanks go out to the nearly 100 employees who have been with us for 20 years for the loyalty they have shown to our company since day one. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is simply impossible for us to hold a big event. However, we have planned several campaigns for this anniversary year, our tree planting campaign being just one of them. It’s a way of celebrating how we have all "grown together".

Which events have had a special impact on our company?

Thorsten Falk:
The thing that comes first to my mind is the decision to focus our business activities on the Volkswagen Group, with one brand and one company. In 2018, AutoVision GmbH was renamed Volkswagen Group Services GmbH and our corporate design was changed from green to blue. With this and the appointment of a Supervisory Board in 2019, the guiding principles for our future were established. In the previous years, an especially important development was the spin-off of our temping services, which had been our long-standing core business, and the IT division into what is now "AutoVision – the HR service provider" and Volkswagen Group IT Services. And the founding of our southern location with the Data Engineering business unit is also one of the most important events in my opinion.

What sets us apart after 20 eventful years?

Hartmut Rickel:
With just under 13,000 employees at twelve national and seven international locations, we have grown to become a skilled service provider while also handling services, such as those relating to future-oriented electric mobility, as a recognised partner. In comparison to outside competitors, it is very clear to us that being a wholly owned member of the group means that both our expertise and our earnings remain within the group. Our diverse portfolio allows us to address customer demands as a qualified and flexible service provider. In close cooperation with our customers, we continue to pursue the development of our services. In my view, this is what makes us special.

Thorsten Falk:
What’s more, we have an advantage over our competitors in that we participate in the infrastructure of the Volkswagen Group. We use group systems and adhere to group standards such as data protection, compliance and integrity. At the same time, we implement group initiatives such as Together4Integrity and the opinion barometer. In addition to these hard facts, our company has always stood out for its active role in social responsibility. We are valued at our
locations as a partner for secure employment with stable, collectively agreed benefits and other advantages. To conclude, I believe it is important to keep in mind that, as Heinrich Nordhoff put it, the value of a company lies in the people who work for it. In other words, the value of Volkswagen Group Services represents an enormously motivated and diverse workforce across all areas of the company – from the logistics staff to the engineers and UX designers. It is our employees who make Volkswagen Group Services special.

Let’s take a look into the future: What are the challenges facing us and how will we address them?

Hartmut Rickel:
Digitalisation, e-mobility, battery development and modern mobility concepts including the entire charging infrastructure chain are just a few keywords that come to mind when looking into the future. For us, this means a change of thinking on many levels and also new forms of knowledge. Our response to these challenges is the CREATE 2025* strategy. This strategy defines how we will approach the developments I just mentioned while also focusing on the needs of our customers in the foreseeable future. Based on CREATE 2025, we are actively designing our future as Volkswagen Group Services. To this end, we have developed clear targets for the divisions and central departments as well as our national and international locations. And we will pursue these targets through strategy initiatives across divisions, such as "developing strategic partnerships" or "attracting and retaining employees". Our corporate media will keep you up to date on the milestones for CREATE 2025. Our strategy process is currently well under way and will be with us for some time. Overall, we are on the right track. But one thing is clear: Only by working together in close cooperation across the divisions will we be able to successfully implement the CREATE 2025 strategy.

What message would you like to give to the employees for the next 20 years?

Thorsten Falk:
Please carry on your commitment to our company as you have done so far! Only with your spirit can we provide high-quality services at Volkswagen Group Services. I would also like to encourage you to actively support the cultural programme Together4Integrity in your own area. This will help us generate open feedback and create a corporate culture that enables equal and partnership-based cooperation. At the same time, it will give us more freedom to create, allow diversity to flourish and confirm that whatever we do according to our values will be seen as equally important as our economic success.

Hartmut Rickel:
The passion you have for your day-to-day work and your solidarity will continue to play a big role in our development. You can all be proud of our daily achievements, especially in front of our clients. Finally, let’s all work together to implement our CREATE 2025 strategy. Your contribution is essential to ensuring that our company will be well positioned for the future and to further establish ourselves as THE service provider within the Volkswagen Group!



*Our CHARGE UP 2030 strategy has replaced CREATE 2025.
CHARGE UP 2030 pays tribute to the constantly ongoing process of further developing Volkswagen Group Services GmbH so that the company can confidently face the challenges of the future with increasing strength.

Note: Since November 2022, the management has consisted of three members with the entry of Dr. Hagen Repke.