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Mercedes model illuminated for Christmas
Photo: Marijan Murat / picture alliance / dpa
The bosses of Mercedes-Benz are obviously not in a party mood in view of the sluggish automotive economy. This time, there will be no end-of-year celebrations in the board departments and thus no Christmas parties, the premium manufacturer confirmed. A spokesperson also said: "The individual divisions, departments or teams decide for themselves whether they want to give end-of-year meetings a festive setting."
In some areas of the company, however, it is assumed that a general ban on celebrations will be imposed at short notice. In some places, this apparently triggers resentment, because invitations to the festivals had already been sent out. This can be seen, for example, from an internal e-mail from the West Sales Directorate. It states that the Mercedes board of directors decided against the celebrations in a meeting "due to the continuing need for cost discipline". This decision had to be complied with and the planned celebration at the end of the year "regrettably cancelled without replacement".
Other areas of the group, on the other hand, say that there is no corresponding board resolution. They simply agreed to approach the festivities a little more sparingly this year, there is no ban. In earlier years, there had been some larger company events, for example with mulled wine stands. Recently, business for Mercedes-Benz has been weaker after a successful previous year: In the past quarter, passenger car sales fell by four percent and consolidated profit by almost seven percent.
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