7:40 am, July 29, 2020
Aston Martin Lagonda saw its losses sink in the first half of this year to £227.4m against £80m for the same period in 2019.
In the troubled manufacturer’s interim results to June 30, released via the London Stock Exchange at 7am today (Jul 29), newly installed executive chairman Lawrence Stroll said the six months had been ‘very intense and challenging’.
The luxury car maker saw its total retail sales figure sink by 41 per cent to 1,770 units from 2,996, while total wholesales were down 63 per cent to 895 cars from 2,442.
Revenue dropped to £146m from £406m – down by 64 per cent. It did, however, reduce its net debt from £843.6m to £751.0m
F1 billionaire Stroll said: ‘This has been a very intense and challenging six months. In January, I and my co-investors in the Yew Tree Consortium committed to make a significant investment in Aston Martin and I took on the role of executive chairman from April to give clear leadership to the business, our partners and our dealers.
‘Since then 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.
‘Obviously, it has been a challenging period with our dealers and factories closed due to Covid-19, in addition to aligning our sales with inventory with the associated impact on financial performance as we reposition for future success. However, I have been most impressed that through this most challenging of times we have been able to reduce our dealers’ sports car inventory by 869 units.’
He added: ‘We have also taken action to right-size the cost base in alignment with our plans and raised £688m of new equity from my consortium and other investors, to strengthen the balance sheet and improve liquidity. Throughout this time our primary concern has been the safety of our colleagues and I am full of admiration for how they have responded to the many challenges Covid-19 has presented.
‘We have recruited an outstanding new senior executive team with the appointment of Tobias Moers as CEO and Ken Gregor as CFO – both bring deep experience of this industry.’
And he acknowledged the importance to the company of the DBX luxury SUV, saying: ‘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 One team giving us a significant global marketing platform to further strengthen our Brand and engage with our customers and partners across the world.’
Looking ahead, Stroll said: ‘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.
‘We have already made great progress in the first 90 days I’ve been in the business. There is still much to be done and I am looking forward to working with Tobias, Ken and the rest of the Aston Martin team as we execute our plans.’
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