Volkswagen is aiming for a break-even at its Spanish brand Seat in the next five years as it counts on new models to boost sales, the head of Seat said.

Seat's parent Volkswagen has agreed to plans to raise capacity utilization at Seat's site in Martorell near Barcelona by introducing new models, James Muir said late on Wednesday. His comments were embargoed for Thursday.

So far, Seat is using 60 percent of the plant's annual capacity of 500,000 vehicles. You can't return Seat to profits just by cutting costs, Muir said.

Volkswagen has tried several times to revamp the brand, which it bought in 1986. Seat's operating loss widened last year to almost 340 million euros ($431.9 million) from a loss of 78 million euros in the previous year.

(Reporting by Jan Schwartz, writing by Eva Kuehnen)

Volkswagen