Revenues decline at Warwick's Aston Martin, but chairman upbeat for future
Revenues and retail sales decline at Aston Martin, which has its headquarters at Gaydon in Warwickshire but new owner, executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, says he remains confident in the luxury car marque's future success.
The company reported retail sales of 4,150 vehicles, down 32 per cent and wholesales of 3,394 vehicles (down 42 per cent).
Revenue declined to £612 million.
However, the final quarter of the year saw improvement, with a three per cent revenue growth and positive adjusted EBITDA due to full quarter of DBX, which is now being manufactures in St Athan, South Wales, 32 Specials and a reduction in total customer and retail financing support
Lawrence Stroll, Executive Chairman, said: "2020 has been a transformative year for Aston Martin. Since I became Executive Chairman in April, we have made significant progress to position the company for success to capture the huge and exciting opportunity ahead of us. We have appointed a world-class executive leadership team with deep experience of this industry and earlier this month announced new non-executive appointments to the Board bringing relevant luxury and automotive experience.
"I am extremely pleased with the progress to date despite operating in these most challenging of times. I welcomed the strong support we received from existing investors and was delighted to attract new investors to Aston Martin through the successful refinancing actions taken during 2020. I, and my co-investors, are fully committed to delivering this plan and are confident in the future success of Aston Martin as we transform the Company to be one of the greatest luxury car brands in the world."
Tobias Moers, Chief Executive Officer, added: "On joining Aston Martin, my first priority was successfully launching our first SUV, the DBX. Demand is strong and we have wholesaled 1,516 units with all dealers now having their demonstrator and floorplan models. Actions were already underway on rebalancing supply to demand for GT and Sports cars, where we have made tremendous progress and are ahead of plan with encouraging signs for demand. Finally, Specials are integral to our plan. The era-defining Aston Martin Valkyrie is a priority this year and we are on track for deliveries to start in the second half [of the year]."
"Our future product plans are underpinned by the landmark strategic cooperation agreement signed with Mercedes-Benz AG giving access to customisable and world-class technology, including hybrid and electrified powertrains. This enables us to focus our development time and investment on the areas that will truly differentiate our products.
"A second key priority for me was to carry out a comprehensive review of the business to ensure we can deliver our plans. "Project Horizon" has been launched to revitalise our products and deliver a level of operational excellence, agility and efficiency throughout every aspect of the organisation. In support of this, we have further strengthened the management team adding experienced hires with strong luxury and automotive backgrounds. We also have significant benefit from the global reach of the Aston Martin Cognizant F1TM team from this season to further drive brand awareness."
