The Stellantis recently decided to entrust the two Italian brands Alfa Romeo and Maserati to a single CEO, namely Santo Ficili. It is a strategy that right from the start seems to have sparked in many the idea of a resounding return to what in Italian is called the “Polo del Lusso,” meaning luxury hub – Sergio Marchionne‘s famous project. Obviously, like all business strategies, this is bound to have consequences, which can be both positive and negative.
Ficili recalls Marchionne’s project
Luxurious hub was introduced in 2016 by Sergio Marchionne. So what does it mean? For the unaware, Marchionne’s ambitious plan was to create one big brand with the merger of the two carmakers of Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Two brands that perfectly represent sportiness and luxury. A type of business strategy that would have made the “supposed brand” aim for a market positioning that would have come quite close to Ferrari. Although this was certainly a project that would have appealed to many people, at the time there was not yet as much talk about electric vehicles as there is now, so an important detail such as this was not expected.
Just these days, we have been talking a lot about the big news that is affecting the reorganization of Stellantis, which has proclaimed Santo Ficili as the sole CEO of Alfa Romeo and Maserati, replacing Jean Philippe Imparato and Davide Grasso. Precisely for this reason, the fact that there is only one person at the head of these two brands immediately made people rethink the project initiated by Marchionne, who wanted at all costs to make these two brands rise to the top, uniting them in such a way that they could create cars that were virtually unattainable for any other manufacturer in the world.
Under new CEO Ficili, Maserati moves away from Ferrari hypothesis
Through the course of recent months, for those who do not remember, there had been discussions on several occasions about the possibility that Ferrari might incorporate the Maserati brand to try to take it to the top, where it deserves to be. Now however, it seems that things have taken a completely opposite direction. In fact, Ferrari rather than the Maserati brand may be taking Alfa Romeo as its reference point. At the moment it is certainly too early to draw conclusions, since Ficili’s work has just begun and we will have to see in the coming months how the commercial actions of the two brands will unfold.
Marchionne’s project, took as a reference point for the union of the two major brands, the famous Mirafiori production center. Now, however, what until a few years ago was certainly one of the most famous and active plants in Europe, is currently almost at a standstill from the production point of view. In fact, the future of this site, at the present is based almost solely on the production of the Fiat 500 Hybrid. Therefore, at the moment all we can do is wait what the effects of Santo Ficili’s work will be. Surely he will know how to do his best, also boasting a long experience gained directly with Stellantis. So, in the coming months, we will know more about the future and possible final revival of the Italian brands Alfa Romeo and Maserati.