The aim of ABT Sportsline is to continuously expand its position as world’s largest tuner for vehicles of the VW Group. This is particularly true for all international emerging markets. The Bavaria-based company is already active in more than 60 countries today. Managing Director Hans-Jürgen Abt is therefore particularly pleased to welcome Rolf Michl as new Head of Sales / Marketing: “In terms of expertise, he is the ideal choice for me. Also, he earned his spurs at our important partner Audi during a ten-year period. The fact that Rolf Michl is also a true Bavarian makes it just perfect.” In the newly created position, Michl is responsible for the sectors Tuning and eMobility. Harry Unflath continues to manage the Sports Marketing with the family company’s various forms of involvement.
The 39-year-old graduate in business management is a real car guy. From 2007 to 2017, he worked at Audi AG where he had previously written his diploma thesis. Additionally, his field of action there was the perfect training for the subsequent start at ABT Sportsline. Six years ago, he made an Audi-internal transfer to the then quattro GmbH as product manager for the RS models. From 2013 to 2015, he was management assistant. Afterwards, he was project manager for the racing series Audi Sport TT Cup where he already worked closely with his present employer. For the last two years, he was head of Audi Sport’s international product marketing for R and RS models at the today Audi Sport GmbH, which is part of the Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer.
In this context, the transfer to ABT Sportsline seems very logical. “Our common goal must be to create the best products, and to offer the absolute pinnacle of performance and individualization with our portfolio,” explains Michl: “For this, we must continue to consistently transfer the ABT-DNA to our products and meet the highest of customer requirements.”
Because of the customers’ increasing demand for individuality and increasing interest in “high-performance” vehicles, ABT Sportsline has decided to meet this demand and has found a suitable man for this job in its own ranks. The previous head of sales, Robert Heine, took over the management of the ABT Sportsline Servicecenter GmbH & Co. KG on July 1, 2017. Among other things, he is responsible for the development of the ABT Performance Cars sector. He sees a big opportunity for sales in the competitive environment of the tuning sector “because ABT is one of the few companies able to offer vehicle tuning, including increase of engine performance, bodywork modifications, rims, suspension and interior, completely from one hand. Even special requests of our customers can be fulfilled with ABT Individual.”
