Louise Piëch and Ferry Porsche paved the way for a new corporate structure in 1971. They declared the withdrawal of all family members from operational functions – in both Salzburg and Stuttgart – and their transition to the supervisory boards of both companies. The handover to an independent management team was followed by a partial restructuring of the company and the later takeover of distribution for the Audi brand.

The company continued to grow. Porsche Holding Salzburg was founded in 1974 as the new umbrella organisation for the Porsche Group in Austria. Porsche Austria was installed as Volkswagen importer, which considerably improved the competitiveness of the Volkswagen sales organisation in Austria owing to the further development of the distribution network there. At the same time, it was possible to strengthen the position of the Volkswagen brand in spite of immense increases in competition from companies in the Far East.

The new organisation Porsche Inter Auto consolidated the various car dealerships of Porsche Holding from 1977.

The 1970s brought some extreme fluctuations in the Austrian market. The substantial increase in VAT in 1978 which also applied to vehicles had a particularly strong impact. Sales rose rapidly before the cut-off date, only to plummet once the increase came into force. Our company used this turbulence to make itself fit for the future. We also showed our readiness to innovate through first investments in other sectors outside of our core business.

As a supplier of parts for the Porsche 356 and the Porsche 911, Porsche Holding Salzburg developed a second mainstay on a small scale. The company started out in this sector by investing in several Austrian industrial enterprises (Fichtel & Sachs, Alu Druck-Guss) and the subsequent acquisition of the German Zipperle Group (1988). The acquisition of Taylorix AG created a third mainstay through expanding into the IT sector. Shortly afterwards a world-wide restructuring took place in both sectors which led Porsche Holding to gradually withdraw from both.

The 1980s were devoted to the development of Porsche Versicherungs AG and Porsche Bank AG, chiefly specialising in the automotive services sector. To date Porsche Bank has continued to retain its position as market leader in the domestic vehicle leasing market. The opening of the new parts distribution centre also created a new dimension in logistics distribution, which years later became an important competitive advantage when markets in Eastern and Southeastern Europe opened up.

Growth in the Spanish brand: we took over sales and distribution of the SEAT brand in Austria in 1984 and installed an entirely new distribution network. Market share grows in line with the launch of the new generation of SEAT models.

New mobility: the Group’s rental car service which the company had owned and been running since the 1960s was transferred to ARAC GmbH in 1989. It is now one of the car rental companies with the richest traditions in Austria. Since 2003, the company has also been the Austrian licence holder of EUROPCAR, Europe’s largest car rental organisation.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Intercar Austria GmbH started as Škoda’s general importer for Austria and developed a clever sales and marketing concept for the traditional Czech brand. This is how Škoda quickly became a true insider tip in Austria and later on – as the model programme continued to develop qualitatively – a genuine sales hit. Porsche Holding Salzburg in Austria also concentrated on consistently expanding its share in the used car market under the Weltauto brand.

Political changes in Eastern Europe brought Porsche the “chance of a lifetime” which we took advantage of with vision, consistency, pioneering spirit and entrepreneurship. In 1990, Volkswagen AG commissioned our company to establish a distribution network for the Group brands in Hungary. The newly formed Porsche Hungaria contributed to Porsche’s reputation in the region through its rapid success in the market there. In addition, Porsche set up more retail operations and became authorised as a Volkswagen and Audi dealer in Bratislava and Prague.

The major changes in several Eastern European countries also had an impact on the activities of Porsche Holding Salzburg. The collapse of Yugoslavia and the ensuing war make it impossible for the former factory-owned company in Sarajevo to supply Slovenia with Volkswagen and Audi vehicles. Eventually, in 1993, Volkswagen AG awarded Porsche the contract to serve as importer in Slovenia, following consideration of all the applicants. An importer contract for Slovakia follows in 1994 after the separation from the Czech Republic had interrupted previous supply lines.

Porsche Informatik was established from Externa in 1996, evolving from the IT business segment that had been developing since the late 1960s. Their range of IT services was already fully customised to the needs of the automotive trade. The highly specialised service provider quickly made a name for itself with excellent IT solutions for the automotive retail sector.

Porsche Holding Salzburg continued its pioneering work in establishing distribution networks for Volkswagen Group brands in the former Eastern bloc countries. Porsche’s investment in the long-term development of these new markets expanded into Romania in 1997 and to Croatia in 1999 (joint venture).

Already in the early 70s – at the beginning of its internationalisation – Porsche Holding focused on Porsche and various other brands from all over the world as importer in France. This position within one of the most important automotive markets became increasingly difficult, as virtually all players started to establish own subsidiaries. Therefore, our company was looking for new development chances in the French retail sector, taking in 1999 an interest in PGA, one of the most important automotive retail groups in France.  We were thus able to reposition ourselves in the French market. PGA expanded its activities towards the Netherlands and Poland.

Porsche Holding Salzburg entered a very exclusive market sector as it moved into the new millennium: we began sales and distribution operations for the British Volkswagen Group brand Bentley in 2000 with Exclusive Cars as well as for the Italian sports car subsidiary Lamborghini in 2001.

We also launched car trading activities in the new millennium in Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria (both 2004), Albania and North Macedonia (both 2005) and Ukraine (2008).

The rapid success of Porsche Holding Salzburg in Central and Southeastern Europe was accelerated by setting up Porsche Inter Auto’s own car dealerships at the same time in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. These meet the latest standards of the Volkswagen Group brands and served as role models for the rest of the dealer network. Porsche Inter Auto, which operates exclusively for the Volkswagen Group brands, is active not only in Austria and the new markets, but also in Germany, Italy and Poland.

Our subsidiary Exclusive Cars Vertriebs GmbH became an authorised sales partner for the Bugatti brand in Austria and the countries of Southeastern Europe in April 2006.

Porsche Bank celebrated 40 years in the business in 2006. The expansion of Porsche Bank’s financial services in Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Ukraine and Colombia contributes decisively to market success in these countries. A large proportion of vehicles are financed by Porsche Bank, which also provides financial services to the sales organisation itself.