GM moving Cadillac HQ to NYC

Associated Press

DETROIT

Cadillac wants a jolt from the city that never sleeps.

General Motors’ 112-year-old luxury-car division, founded in Detroit and named for the city’s founder, is moving its headquarters to New York.

Cadillac, which steadily has been losing sales to its German rivals, wants to get closer to its ideal buyers. Executives and marketing staffers will set up shop in a loft office in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo neighborhood starting next year.

“There is no city in the world where the inhabitants are more immersed in a premium lifestyle than in New York,” Johann de Nysschen, the brand’s new president, said in a statement issued Tuesday announcing the move. “It allows our team to share experiences with premium-brand consumers and develop attitudes in common with our audience.”

Cadillac will become a separate business unit, giving it more freedom to chase global growth. Most product engineering and design will remain in Detroit. Cadillacs will continue to be built at plants in Michigan, Texas, Canada, Mexico and China.

The company still is evaluating which employees go to New York, but spokesman David Caldwell said it’s likely fewer than 100 people will move in the first phase next year.

Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates in New York, said the advantage of New York is its proximity to the luxury market.

“You have to catch trends closer to potential buyers,” Adamson said. “There are more hedge-fund billionaires in NYC than there are in Detroit. The team will be closer to the luxury market and luxury users.”

Adamson said it’s also less important today for car brands to be linked to manufacturing centers such as Detroit. Fiat Chrysler’s new global headquarters will be in London, for example.