D'Ieteren plans 344 job cuts for a Belgian market that never recovered

D'Ieteren's 344 job cuts are a bet that Belgium's car market stays a quarter smaller

D'Ieteren Automotive told its works council on 3 September that it wants to cut up to 344 jobs, close some sites and merge functions under a strategic plan running to 2030. The company has imported Volkswagen Group cars into Belgium for more than 70 years, and its reasoning is blunt: the fall in new-car sales since the pandemic is structural, and the organisation has to be sized for lower volumes and a different kind of customer.

344 jobs is about 12 percent of D'Ieteren Automotive's 2,945 full-time staff

The plan is an intention, not a decision. D'Ieteren has opened the information and consultation phase under Belgium's Renault Act, so 344 is a ceiling and the final figure comes out of the talks. The latest annual report counts 2,945 full-time equivalents, which makes the ceiling close to 12 percent of the workforce. Independent dealers are outside the plan and keep sales and aftersales for all the brands. ACV Puls, the union, has already called management's timetable unachievable and says it will table alternatives.

Belgium registered 414,770 new cars in 2025, almost a quarter fewer than in 2019

Belgium registered 414,770 new passenger cars in 2025, 7.5 percent fewer than the 448,277 of 2024 and 24.6 percent below the 550,003 of 2019, according to FEBIAC. The fall is a company-car fall: leasing companies registered 13 percent fewer cars in 2025 while private buyers grew 1.8 percent. D'Ieteren's own count for the first half of 2026 is 231,000 registrations, down another 1.8 percent, and its release says it does not expect the lost volume to come back. Every other line of the plan follows from that sentence.

The 2027 mobility budget is named as a reason to shrink an importer

D'Ieteren's release lists the drivers as decarbonisation, digitalisation accelerated by artificial intelligence, sharper global competition and, unusually for a car company, the mandatory mobility budget from 2027. A draft law approved by the federal government in January would oblige employers with 50 or more staff who have offered company cars for more than 36 months to offer the budget from 1 January 2027, with firms of 15 to 49 staff following in 2028. An employee can then trade the car for transport spending or cash. For an importer whose volume is company cars, a law that lets every eligible employee swap the car for cash is a direct threat to the order book.

Six days later, D'Ieteren's half-year results showed the automotive margin halved to 2.1 percent

The plan was announced on 3 September and the numbers that explain it arrived on 9 September. D'Ieteren Automotive's sales fell 10.8 percent to €2,269 million in the first half of 2026, the adjusted operating margin dropped from 4.5 to 2.1 percent, and adjusted profit before tax fell 66.6 percent to €36.4 million. Market share slipped 153 basis points to 21.6 percent. The group as a whole was fine, because Belron's windscreen business lifted adjusted profit before tax 8.4 percent to €482.4 million. Management expects automotive trends not to improve in the second half, with the sold-out ID. Polo, the Cupra Raval and the Skoda Epiq as the hoped-for support.

From selling new Volkswagens to earning from 1.2 million cars already on the road

The strategy behind the cuts is to earn across a car's life rather than at registration: more of the roughly 18,000 used cars D'Ieteren sells a year, plus financing, insurance, maintenance and mobility services around the 1.2 million cars of its brands on Belgian roads. The logic is the one Wolfsburg is applying at the other end of the chain, where 50,000 German jobs go by 2030 and the model range is halved, and it is the logic that closed Audi's Brussels plant six months ago. D'Ieteren is an independent importer and says nothing has been imposed from Germany.

AutoNext Take

D'Ieteren has stopped waiting for 2019 to come back. A 2.1 percent margin on €2.3 billion of sales is a retailer's margin, not an importer's, and a company earning two cents on every euro of new-car sales has every reason to want the other cents from the 1.2 million cars it has already sold. The 153 basis points of share lost in six months is the more uncomfortable figure, because it says the problem is no longer only the size of the market.

The Renault Act consultation will set the real number. The guidance is where this can be checked: D'Ieteren says automotive trends will not improve in the second half of 2026. If the full-year results next March show the automotive margin back above 3 percent on those three cars, the plan was sized for a market that was already turning. If it is still near 2 percent, 344 will read as a first instalment.

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