3:49 pm, March 1, 2012
AUDI has announced its operating profits soared 60 per cent to 5.3bn euros in 2011 – its best ever figure in more than 100 years.
Speaking at the firm’s annual press conference, chairman of the board of management, Rupert Stadler, told the press that despite ‘natural catastrophes in Japan; the Arab Spring; and the ongoing sovereign-debt crisis in Europe’, 2011 was still a record year for Audi.
Taking the headlines was the German firm’s impressive rise in operating profit from 2bn euros (£1.6bn) to 5.3bn euros (£4.4bn), and more than 1.3m vehicles were delivered to customers.
‘With 1,302,659 cars delivered to customers, we not only exceeded the previous year’s record for the Audi brand,’ said Stadler. ‘It’s also worth noting the speed of our growth in 2011. Never before has Audi achieved a single- year increase of 210,000 vehicles.That represents a gain of 19.2 percent.’
Sales revenues reached 44.1bn euros (£36.9bn) – representing an increase of 24.4 per cent over 2010 – while operating profit margin increased to 12.1 percent—a new record.
‘Audi’s strong growth in 2011 took us a major step closer to reaching our interim goal of delivering 1.5 million cars in 2015. Based on the way things look right now, we’re quite optimistic that we’ll surpass that target even sooner.’
