Cadillac is to be relaunched in Britain on January 1 next year as a sister company to Saab.

Cadillac and Chevrolet launched in the UK more than two years ago under the North American Vehicles banner, but only a handful of cars have been sold. Now across Europe the Cadillac and Saab brands will join forces and share responsibility for sales strategy.

In the UK selected showrooms will sell both brands, although they will have separate sales forces. A national sales company based on the existing Saab structure will manage the relationship with dealers.

Mark LaNeve, Cadillac general manager, said: "The new generation of products will drive sales forward. Our expectations for the UK are not huge but the UK market is very important for Cadillac."

No dealers have so far been appointed to sell Cadillacs from January 1 next year. The spokesman said it was likely that 15 - 20 of Saab GB's dealers would be appointed dual brand dealers.

In the UK Cadillac will be led by Jonathan Nash, managing director of Saab GB, who said: "There is no clash between the Saab and Cadillac brands. I view Cadillac as a conservative luxury brand in the Lexus mould, while Saab is about European individuality.

"The two are not the same and the move presents an incremental volume opportunity for our dealers. The ambitions to grow Cadillac are very strong. I expect sales volumes in the UK to be in the hundreds of cars, not thousands." (September 18, 2001)