MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. Nicolas Maure, Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s flagship car manufacturer Avtovaz, takes the office on Monday.

The company’s Board of Directors made the appointment at a meeting in mid-March.

Maure is in Togliatti already, the company’s representative said.

Maure, 55, was Managing Director for Renault Group operations in Romania, where he was in charge of all commercial and industrial activities. He also served as President and CEO of Automobile Dacia SA, a car manufacturing plant in Pitesti owned by Renault.

Before taking over operations in Romania, Maure was Vice President for Renault global manufacturing performance and a Vice President for Powertrain in the Renault-Nissan Alliance Purchasing Organization. He led teams in manufacturing, purchasing, quality and aftersales. He joined Renault in 2000 after working for automotive suppliers including Faurecia and Valeo.

According to Romanian media, Maure was in charge of all commercial and production operations at the Dacia plant. Judging by the results demonstrated by the plant, particularly on its export markets, Maure is an efficient top manager - around 90% of the cars produced by the company are supplied to Ukraine, Moldavia and a number of European countries. The company’s total annual turnover now stands at €5.1 bln. The plant produces such models as Dacia Logan, Dacia Logan MCV, Dacia Logan Van, Dacia Sandero, Dacia Sandero Stepway, Dacia Duster.

Avtovaz’ former head was Bo Andersson, who came to the company in 2013. He suggested strategic restructuring of the company, which included modernization, new products and transfer of technologies.

In 2015, Russia’s largest car maker reported 74 billion rubles ($1.05 bln) worth of loss amid rising expenses on new model launching, falling car market, declining purchasing power and the devaluation of the national currency. The company also marked negative cash flow and stated that without the support of shareholders it may not be able to pay its debt and continue operations. In an interview with TASS, head of Rostech Sergei Chemezov said the loss was Andersson’s responsibility as he had preferred not to work actively with Russian suppliers of spare parts and had more expensive contracts with the alliance’s suppliers.

The Renault-Nissan alliance has a majority stake in Alliance Rostec Auto BV, a holding company that controls Avtovaz. Renault, Nissan and Avtovaz’s LADA brand build vehicles together in Togliatti and other plants throughout Russia.

A source, close to the plant, told TASS a week earlier Andersson met with the company’s management, said good-bye to the staff and apologized for being unable to meet expectations of the shareholders. Andersson also made a tour of the assembly line in Togliatti for Maure, thus having passed the production into his hands.