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GM retiring Holden in Australia, New Zealand after 90 years

A Holden sign is seen at a dealership in Adelaide, Australia, on Monday, a day after GM announced it would stop selling the brand in Australia and New Zealand. Photo by Kelly Barnes/EPA EFE
A Holden sign is seen at a dealership in Adelaide, Australia, on Monday, a day after GM announced it would stop selling the brand in Australia and New Zealand. Photo by Kelly Barnes/EPA EFE

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- General Motors has announced it will exit markets in Australia and New Zealand next year and withdraw the Chevrolet brand from Thailand by the end of this year.

The U.S. automaker said Sunday it will "wind down" sales, design and engineering operations in Australia and New Zealand and retire the Holden brand by next year, opting instead to focus on specialty vehicles for those markets. Holden has been a GM subsidiary since 1931.

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In Thailand, it will phase out Chevrolet sales and the sale of its Rayong vehicle manufacturing facility to Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors.

The announcements represented the latest phase in GM's global restructuring effort that began in 2015, Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said.

"We are restructuring our international operations, focusing on markets where we have the right strategies to drive robust returns, and prioritizing global investments that will drive growth in the future of mobility," she said.

GM President Mark Reuss added the company is reluctant to discontinue Holden in Australia and New Zealand, where it's been an automotive staple for decades, but ultimately decided the market for right-hand drive vehicles is too fragmented for sustained profitability.

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"After considering many possible options -- and putting aside our personal desires to accommodate the people and the market -- we came to the conclusion that we could not prioritize further investment over all other considerations we have in a rapidly changing global industry," he said.

The U.S. automaker said its decision to sell the Rayong plant came due to its "low utilization" and unfavorable forecast volumes. The plant sale spells the end of Chevrolet in Thailand's new-vehicle market.

Under its global realignment effort, GM has recently retreated from several underperforming markets. In 2017, it sold its European operations to French automaker PSA Group and has also ended or cut back operations in Russia and India.

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