3:22 pm, January 22, 2013
Joe Doyle, HR Owen chief executive
LUXURY car retailer HR Owen is all prepared for a strong set of 2012 financial year results.
In a trading update, the London-based high-end firm said it is expecting the results for the year ending December 31, 2012 to be ‘ahead of market expectations’.
Healthy customer demand for cars from its exotic and luxury franchises have fuelled the positive expectations.
The firm says its Ferrari and Lamborghini businesses have performed particularly well, while sales of Rolls-Royce and Bentley helped close a good year.
‘HR Owen’s revved up performance has been due to both the resilience of its niche, but highly lucrative, market of high earners and international elite, who in reality only paused with their spending patterns during the latest recession,’ Nigel Harrison, analyst at Edison Investment Research, told The Daily Telegraph.
‘For those who have £200,000 to £300,000 to spend on a new Ferrari or Aston Martin, or three times that on a Bugatti, it was never really about whether they had problems with cash-flow in the first place but whether there was sufficient supply of well-made, high performance but above all status symbol cars to meet their demand,’ Harrison added.
HR Owen said 2013 may see ‘a less pronounced first half with the second half contributing a higher proportion of the full year result than has historically been seen’ due to fewer new car releases.
‘The implementation of our strategy for growth is progressing well and we look forward to the roll out of further business opportunities during the coming year,’ the trading update went on to say.
HR Owen will announce its preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2012 in March 2013.
