Aston Martin Lagonda is on track to transform the firm into "one of the great global luxury car brands" says new chairman Lawrence Stroll, despite it posting a a pre-tax loss of £227.4 million in the first half of 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19.
The British firm sold 1770 cars worldwide between January and June, down 41% year on year. Sales were hit by the closure of virtually all its dealerships due to lockdown measures to tackle the spread of coronavirus in various countries. That led to the firm posting revenues of £146m in the first half of 2020, down 64% year on year - although that does show signs of recent improvement because Aston posted a loss of £118.9m in the first three months of the year.
Aston also had to suspend production at its factories in Gaydon, where its sports car models are produced, and the new St Athan plant, home to the new DBX SUV. Production has now resumed at St Athan, but Gaydon remains closed while the firm reduces its stock of sports cars. Production is now due to restart there at the end of August.
The Covid-19 pandemic came as Aston Martin was in the midst of a major restructuring, with Stroll's Yew Tree consortium leading a £688m investment. Stroll was appointed executive chairman in April, sparking a major revamp of the business.
Stroll's plan includes increasing profitability and cutting costs by reducing production of the firm's key sports car lines to reflect demand, along with a focus on the new DBX SUV. To achieve that, the company is cutting up to 500 jobs.
While announcing the Aston's latest financial results, Stroll noted that the firm has reduced its sports car stock by 869 models in the past three months. Stroll has also appointed former Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers as Aston's new CEO, replacing Andy Palmer, with the Moers due to begin work next week.
Stroll acknowledged that "this has been a very intense and challenging six months" but added that despite having to deal with the impact of Covid-19, "we have been fully engaged in executing the initial reset in order to achieve our ambition to build Aston Martin into one of the great global luxury car brands.
"Our ambition for the company is significant, clear and only matched by our determination to succeed, to transform Aston Martin and capture the huge and exciting opportunity ahead of us."
Speaking about the progress made so far, Stroll said: "We are restoring exclusivity to our sports cars, rebalancing supply to demand, which, in the short term, means lower wholesale volumes but is necessary for future success.
"The new DBX is critical to our successful future and I am delighted that, after more than a month of closure, production restarted and initial deliveries have now been made. Also critical to our future is the ability to market and engage with our customers. From next year, we will have the great benefit of a highly competitive Aston Martin-branded Formula 1 team giving us a significant global marketing platform to further strengthen our brand and engage with our customers and partners across the world."
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Car collection
Maybe Google 'Lawrence Stroll car collection' and see how unfounded those comments that he doesn't care about the product are. Sure he's focusing on the brand but thats because he's the brand guy, think of all the luxury brands hes been involved turning around. The product is being looked after a product guy in Tobias Moers. Tell me how many bad AMG products there have been in recent years. They're playing to their strengths, a company goes down hill when they have people in place who don't.
Brand?
Once again Stroll is only interested in the "Brand", not the product.
Aston is already known as a luxury brand but Stroll only sees value in the name, not the product. If he cared about the product, which is their main problem for lack of sales, he'd be doing more than just talking about the recognition of that name.
Brand?
I agree. I have real concerns about Stroll's intentions. Launching Aston as a top flight F1 team may well serve his purposes, but is likely to burn through huge amounts of cash, which the company can ill-afford. The DBX is a welcome and necessary step, but the rest of the range, starting with the Vantage, needs serious attention, and quickly. I fear that the future may not be bright for Aston Martin, with the pandemic being the last nail in the coffin for a once great brand.
DBX Deliveries have Commenced?
GREAT NEWS!!!
Go Aston, GO!!!