The sports car manufacturer Aston Martin Lagonda, which is mainly known from James Bond films, is not out of the crisis. In the USA, the British luxury brand suffers from high advertising and marketing costs.
In addition, the proportion of cheaper cars in sales grew, as the group announced on Tuesday in the British Gaydon. Overall, sales to dealers dropped last year by 7 percent to 5809 vehicles.
As a result of developments, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to preliminary figures, fell to £ 130-140 million last year (£ 166-178 million). In the previous year, Aston Martin had posted an operating profit of £ 247 million. The bottom line, however, was that the company had already posted losses.
Most recently, the rising pound sterling also hit the car maker. The economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit is also difficult for the company.
The British stock slumped in London on Tuesday by up to 14 percent. “From a business perspective, 2019 was a very disappointing year,” said CEO Andy Palmer. Now the company wants to counteract this with cost reductions.
Aston Martin also has great hope in the luxury SUV DBX. With him, the company wants to more than double total production by 2023. Production start of the DBX should be in the second quarter.