Iconic British sports car brand Aston Martin has been named the world’s fastest-growing automotive brand – despite it posting pre-tax profits that were down 53 per cent on the same period last year.
It announced it made a pre-tax profit of £2.8m in the first quarter of 2018 – which was £3.1m less than from January to March 2017.
The title of fastest-growing car brand was based by valuation consultancy firm Brand Finance on the brand’s EBITDA rating, which was up three per cent to £43.7m, with the Warwickshire-based manufacturer crediting the new DB11 V8 and Volante convertible models as the main driving force for that result.
EBITDA stands for ‘earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization’ and is the company’s operating performance without taking into consideration financing and accounting decisions or tax environments.
The company also sold 240 fewer units between January and March compared with the same period in 2017 – 963 models this first quarter against 1,203 for last year’s first three months.
The average selling price of Aston Martin models went up to start the year, with the mean cost up to £160,000 – which it said was caused by customers selecting higher-value options and being from a more diverse selection of countries.
Aston Martin also said that with plenty of customer interest for the upcoming Vantage and DBS Superleggera, order books were overflowing and continued to “outpace overall production capacity”.
Special-edition vehicles have been particularly successful, as deliveries of the DB4 GT Continuation and Vanquish Zagato models increased during the first three months of 2018.
The company has also continued to invest in future plans and development – including the new St Athan factory, which is set to build a premium SUV – and the re-establishment of the Lagonda moniker that will be producing high-end all-electric vehicles.
Andy Palmer, Aston Martin president and chief executive, said: “Aston Martin delivered another quarter of positive pre-tax profit, achieved in a period of significant planned investment in new products and manufacturing facilities.
“This is a good set of results during a quarter of planned model changeovers, during which orders have continued to grow for our exciting new models. We have continued to execute against the Second Century Plan, and we were delighted by the exceptional reaction to the new Vantage and the launch of our Lagonda ‘Vision Concept’, representing a significant advance in our portfolio expansion.”
