Nissan’s U.S. Organization Restructured

Nissan Motor Co., beset by image problems and falling sales, has restructured its U.S. operations and has named Thomas D. Mignanelli executive vice president of operations.

However, a company spokesman said the reorganization, which simplifies lines of authority and creates a series of regional general managers with more autonomy, has nothing to do with the company’s sales slump. In fact, he said, the restructuring has been in the works for a few years and is unrelated to last year’s management shake-up.

The executive vice president job previously was held by Kazutoshi Hagiwara, president of Nissan’s U.S. subsidiary. Mignanelli, who joined Nissan only 10 months ago from Ford, is currently vice president-sales and marketing.

The restructuring and several other appointments take effect May 1, the company said.

The restructuring “does make sense and I’m surprised that they didn’t do it earlier,� said Khaled Abdel Majeed, an auto analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert. “They probably are saying to themselves why Honda and Toyota both ranked higher in consumer satisfaction surveys.�

Under its current system, Nissan, based in Carson, has separate organizations for sales and marketing, service and parts.

As part of the reorganization, Nissan will form three divisions: Nissan, Infiniti and parts and service.

The Nissan division, to be headed by Robert J. Thomas in a newly created vice president’s position, will be divided into 11 regions, each with a regional general manager in charge of sales, parts and service. Thus, 11 people will report to the vice president instead of 33 under the old system. The Nissan division has 1,108 dealers.

The Infiniti division, to be headed by William R. Bruce in another new vice president’s position, will be structured similarly but with three regions. The Infiniti division will introduce a line of luxury vehicles in the fall of 1989 through a separate network of 75 dealers, seven of which have been selected so far.

Thomas and Bruce have been general managers for sales of Nissan and Infiniti products. They will report to Mignanelli.

Richard T. Hartzell, vice president of the service division, has been appointed vice president of consumer affairs. Jerry Butts, vice president of Nissan’s parts division, has been named vice president of the new parts and service division.

The old system “was unwieldy and bureaucratic and this simplifies it,� the Nissan spokesman said.

Nissan has been plagued by falling sales in part because the strength of the Japanese yen pushed the company and other Japanese auto makers to increase U.S. prices. Nissan’s U.S. car and truck sales were down nearly 30% in the first three months of the year compared to 1987, but the spokesman said sales improved in April because of customer cash incentives.

Some analysts have traced the company’s problems back to the decision a few years ago to change its name from Datsun to Nissan. Last summer, Nissan completed a quiet executive reshuffling in its U.S. sales and marketing operations.

In addition, the company failed to introduce any new models last fall. New models are planned this fall and next year.