Embarking on a radical reformation of the way in which it manages its sales operations in Europe, Honda engaged Deloitte to design and implement a corporate structure to bring the group’s entire European sales operation under one UK roof. This was part of the company’s pan-European programme – dubbed ‘One Honda in Europe’ – to centralise more 'non customer facing' activity within its European HQ in the UK.

To achieve a pan-European reorganisation of this scale in the timeframe desired, Deloitte marshalled the combined expertise of 15 tax and legal teams across Deloitte’s European member firms. The project ran in two phases: the first used the relatively new legislation on cross-border mergers to achieve a conversion of all of Honda’s European sales subsidiaries (for four-wheeled vehicles) into branches of the UK HQ company. The second applied the same techniques to Honda’s logistics operations and (its two-wheeled) sales operations in Italy and Spain. Deloitte worked closely with Honda throughout the project and the combined Deloitte/Honda team successfully delivered both phases on time.

The combined effect of the project has been to place Honda Europe’s UK HQ at the very heart of a leaner, more agile and more focused European sales business.