About us
One Group. Five brands. Unlimited possibilities.
We’re driven by difference. With five big brands under one roof – each with its own history, designs and innovation – we’ve created some of the world’s most iconic vehicles, from luxury sports cars to family camper vans. Here, you’ll discover opportunities, explore ideas and tackle challenges that you won’t find anywhere else.
Whatever drives you – whether it’s curiosity, adventure, collaboration or growth – at Volkswagen Group UK, you’ll find a career path that matches your ambitions. The range of experiences we offer are unparalleled in our industry. The places they could take you are just as varied.
Who we are
At Volkswagen Group UK, we employ over 900 people, supporting a network of more than 600 retailers, and we manage all aspects of vehicle sales for our five brands, from ordering to importing, and advertising to aftersales.
What really sets us apart is how we work – not how many vehicles we sell. Our people have a true passion for what they do, a genuine desire to go further for customers and to give their own careers real momentum at the same time, in an industry that is changing fast to become electrified, digital, and connected. It takes a diverse range of teams to make us successful, but we all share the same aim: to deliver sustainable, profitable growth, drive up market share, improve customer satisfaction, and strive to be the best employer in the automotive sector.
The Volkswagen Group Essentials
The seven Volkswagen Group Essentials are the foundation of our values and culture. They unite our brands and functions. They describe what we stand for. And they’re a promise to our customers, shareholders, business partners, and each other.
- We are part of society. We take on social responsibility. We pay attention to the environmental compatibility of our products and processes, and improve them, every day.
- We do the right thing out of inner conviction, even if no one is watching. We are not afraid of hierarchies and say openly what we think. We listen to one another and find the best solution together.
- We are bold. Innovative. Inventors. Movers. We let go and think afresh. We shape the mobility of tomorrow.
- We are different. Unique. Part of the greater whole. We are open to other ways of thinking, to new experiences and solutions. We approach one another with respect, as equals.
- We stand for sustainable products and quality. We make an important contribution to the company’s success, with passion, with conviction, effectively. We are proud of what we do and how we do it.
- We work together, without hesitation or complications, worldwide. We are bridge builders, not gatekeepers. Together unbeatable. We stand united, as one team.
- We can be counted on. We do what we say and say what we do, candidly, honestly. We keep our promises. We regain lost trust.
Sitting alongside our Group Essentials, Volkswagen Group’s global Code of Cooperation sets out how our Brands and Functions work together to realise the full efficiencies and competitive advantages of being the biggest automotive player in the world.
A brief history
- Word begins to spread throughout Germany about a ‘people's car’.
- The ‘Beetle’ arrives in the UK.
- Volkswagen and Audi form a partnership.
- Volkswagen UK moves into Milton Keynes.
- SEAT and ŠKODA become Volkswagen Group Brands.
- By now, Volkswagen has also acquired the Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini brands.
- We’re rated in the Top 25 Great Places to Work® UK.
- Volkswagen Group UK is awarded ‘Top Employer’ status. Golf wins European Car of the Year.
- Volkswagen Group UK is awarded ‘Top Employer’ status again. Audi A3 wins World Car of the Year.
- Volkswagen Group wins Top Employer status again. Volkswagen Passat wins Car of the Year.
We’re rated 11th in Great Places to Work® UK - Four Volkswagen Group people are among a list of the top women working in the automobile industry (The Great British Women in the Car Industry awards)
- Volkswagen and ŠKODA step forward to accept prizes at international shows.
- The Audi e-tron rolls off of the production line.
- Customers who had pre-ordered the ID.3 take collection of their new vehicle – delivered carbon neutrally.
CSR
The last few years have seen substantial progress for us, on all aspects of sustainability. Volkswagen is committed to the Paris Agreement and has developed a Group decarbonisation program for this purpose, which is currently being implemented. By 2025, the company aims to reduce the carbon footprint of cars and light-commercial vehicles across the entire value chain by 30 percent compared to 2015 – and by 2050 to make the entire Group’s balance sheet CO₂ neutral. The goal: A green zero.
There is already an extensive range of both hybrid and fully electric models, using pure electric powertrain to achieve zero-emissions in use. Following Audi and Volkswagen, both SEAT and ŠKODA now also offer fully electric cars with the range expanding rapidly in the years to come.
In the UK, we’re creating new and innovative programmes and partnerships to help prepare our employees, networks and customers for the move towards greater electrification of mobility.
Waste
Our progress hasn’t been limited to our vehicles. We ensure that we send ‘zero waste to landfill’ (excluding construction waste) from our Milton Keynes Head Office, National Learning Centre and Technical Service Centre. This is achieved by a cooperative approach involving smart segregation of waste at source, leading-edge processing by our contractor and diversion of anything that cannot be recycled from landfill, to energy-from-waste. We have initiated programmes across our business to encourage our employees to not only reduce their consumption of items that generate waste, but also incentivised them to use their waste in a positive manner.
Energy and Carbon
We have continued to examine our carbon impact across all areas of our business, with reduction targets being put in place for the five main areas of carbon generation. We have also achieved a dramatic increase in our renewable energy capacity: this involved extending the existing 110 kilowatt solar photovoltaic system at our National Parts Warehouse to a far larger system of 1.6 megawatts – almost 15 times greater. When completed in early 2015, this was among the largest roof-mounted solar schemes in the country.
Milton Keynes Charitable Foundation is one of the longest-standing beneficiaries of Volkswagen Group UK giving. On our behalf they manage, and distribute, the Volkswagen Group UK Ltd Fund with the aim of ‘supporting vulnerable members of the Milton Keynes Community’. Each year they make grants to specific projects selected on our behalf. For over 30 years, we have supported the Foundation by donating a car to them for their annual raffle, raising far in excess of £1 million since it started.
Brooklands Farm Primary School, local to us here in Milton Keynes, has become an established partner, working with us regularly on a project which involves all year groups completing the sort of real work which we do every day. This included marketing, roadside assistance and even a modern-day update of the original, classic Beetle. The project has been a tremendous success, and has continued with different projects and visits to encourage pupils to consider future career opportunities.
Community
Through our culture and values, we make Volkswagen Group a great place to work. We’ve been in Milton Keynes for over 30 years, playing a positive role in the community, and our people are encouraged to make a difference through local charities.
All employees at Volkswagen Group UK are entitled to an extra day’s leave each year to support a charity or community group. This great initiative was introduced by our Employee Forum in response to feedback from our people, who said they were keen to do their bit for the local community.
Charity Committee
Volkswagen Group UK supports local charities Willen Hospice and Milton Keynes Community Foundation as well as BEN Automotive Industry Charity as well as Cancer Research UK on a national level. It’s important to the Group that we support these causes as well as special events such as Children in Need and the Macmillan Coffee Morning. Our charity outlook adds to the vibrancy of the workplace. It shows that the business cares more broadly about other wider issues alongside selling cars. There’s a very real human element to what we do.
Willen Hospice is very close to our heart. The annual running cost of the Hospice is over £5m million, and they are fortunate to have around a quarter of their costs met by the NHS. However, the remaining amount needs to be raised from the local community, and without the support and dedication of people like us, they couldn't provide the vital care that they do.
