Commercial dealings: Carlos Santos is leaving VW Group in January next year after leading its commercial division to record sales success.

VOLKSWAGEN Group Australia (VGA) has announced that its director of commercial vehicles, Carlos Santos, will leave the company in January next year to pursue another business venture.

Mr Santos will be replaced by Ryan Davies, who has held the role of VGA general manager of sales (passenger vehicles) for the past two-and-a-half years.

Prior to that Mr Davies was the national sales manager for commercial vehicles from August 2013 to May 2016.

Mr Davies previously worked with VGA at the company’s inception back in 2001, holding roles in sales and marketing, distribution and product management.

In 2004 he moved to independent importer Ateco Automotive for eight years, holding national sales and dealer operations management roles for the Alfa Romeo and Ferrari brands respectively, as well as serving as a regional manager for Ateco until 2013, when he returned to VGA.

With Mr Davies moving into the commercial vehicles division, his role will be filled by
general manager of product and marketing for passenger vehicles, Ben Wilks.

In turn, Jason Bradshaw takes on Mr Wilks’ previous role while continuing as VGA’s director of customer experience.

Ryan Davies

Mr Santos has been the head of the company’s commercial vehicles division for about five years, a position he took on after serving as VGA’s general manager of network development.

Before joining VGA, Mr Santos was the general manager of sales at Audi Australia.

The details of Mr Santos’ business venture remain unclear at this stage, but VGA said in a statement that a further announcement will be made early in the New Year.

VGA managing director Michael Bartsch – who recently renewed his contract – praised Mr Santos’ efforts in building the commercial vehicle brand in Australia.

“Carlos has led the CV brand to its greatest success and I have no doubt that he will emulate this in his new venture,” he said.

“That Carlos can be replaced from within the business reflects the strength of Volkswagen’s management. We are well placed to move into 2019 and beyond.”

Under Mr Santos’ guidance, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has achieved record growth, with Australia becoming the biggest export market globally for the Amarok pick-up.

The Amarok is the third-best-selling VW model in Australia behind the Golf and the Tiguan.

The Caddy compact van is the top seller in its segment by some margin, with a 62.7 per cent market share so far this year, while the larger Transporter holds a 10.2 per cent share of its segment, which hands it third position behind the Toyota HiAce and Hyundai iLoad.

By Tim Nicholson