The corporate umbrella
In 1971 Louise Piëch and her brother Professor Ferdinand Porsche decided that all family members are to give up their operational functions both in Salzburg and in Stuttgart and are to withdraw to the supervisory committees of both companies. Assigning the operational tasks to an independent management was followed by a partial restructuring of the company and - a little later - by taking over the distribution of the Audi marque.
In the wake of the successful growth of the company, the Porsche Holding was founded in 1974 to act as corporate umbrella of the Austrian Porsche concern. Moreover Porsche Austria was installed as VW importer, which meant that with the further development of the sales network the competitiveness of the VW distribution organisation improved substantially. At the same time the position of the Volkswagen marque was further strength-
ened despite the dramatically increasing pressure by manufacturers from the Far East. Starting in 1977 the various Porsche dealerships were structured and brought together in the Porsche Inter Auto.
New Dimensions
In the seventies the market got in motion. Due to the raising of the value added tax sales rocketed only to plummet in the following year. Porsche used this situation to train again and again the swiftness and flexibility of the entire distribution organisation. First steps towards innovation were undertaken by acquiring interests in other businesses (Portex). In addition to that, Porsche also became active as a sub-supplier on a small scale to have a second leg to stand on (parts for the Porsche 356 and later on for the 911). By investing in some Austrian industrial enterprises (Fichtel & Sachs, Alu Druck-Guss) and later by purchasing the German Zipperle Group (1988), Porsche made headway also in this line. The purchase of Taylorix AG and the expansion of EDP activities provided a third pillar. But it is exactly at that time that worldwide restructuring in these two lines left no stone unturned. A few years later the Porsche Holding gradually withdrew from these fields.
In the 1980’s the focus was on the development of the Porsche Versicherungs AG and of the Porsche Bank AG and thus efforts centred mainly on the services all around the car. Porsche has successfully defended its position as market leader in the domestic automobile leasing busi-
ness. The opening of the new spare parts distribution centre was a milestone in the field of logistics, which was to prove as a trump card when Porsche moved into countries of the former Eastern bloc some years later.
In 1985 Porsche also took over the distribution of the Seat marque. A totally new dealers’ network was installed and with the new generation of Seat models the market share could be raised gradually.
In 1989 the mobility service was modified substantially. The Group’s own rental car service, which had existed since the sixties, was incorporated into ARAC GmbH and is today among the most senior rental car companies in Austria. Since 2003 ARAC has been the Austrian licensee of EUROPCAR , the biggest car rental organisation in Europe.
The beginning of the nineties was marked by the used car offensive under the logo "Weltauto" and by the start-up of Intercar Austria GmbH, the general importer of Skoda in Austria. With great ingenuity and know-how, the newly founded Skoda importer developed a distribution- and marketing concept tailored to the needs of the marque. It was with this concept that due to qualitative improvement of the model range, Skoda - still more of an outsider - literally sold like hotcakes in no time.
The business field of EDP had been developing favourably since the late sixties and became a highly specialized service provider within Porsche Informatik, which has gained a high reputation as provider of software solutions in the automobile trade.
