Aston Martin triples car sales but still slides to £90m loss
Aston Martin plunged to yet another loss this morning despite selling more than three times the number of cars it did in the first half last year.
The classic British brand posted a £90.7m pre-tax loss, a markedly improved effort after losing £227.4m in the same period in 2020.
Revenue also increased 242 per cent to £498.8m, the marque said, driven by the rapid increase in car sales.
In total, Aston Martin shifted 2,901 cars in the first half, up for 895 last year. Of these, more than 1,500 were the firm’s DBX model, its first ever SUV.
The carmaker said it was on track to sell 6,000 cars over the whole year, with no changes to its forecasts other than a £15m hit due to legal proceedings it initiated recently.
Executive chairman Lawrence Stroll said, who took over the company a year ago, said that he had now completed his initial turnaround plan for the company, which has struggled ever since listing in 2018.
“The demand we see for our products, the new product pipeline and the quality of the team we have in place to execute, gives me great confidence in our continued success as we progress towards achieving our medium-term targets of 10,000 units, £2bn revenue and £500m of adjusted EBITDA, as we transform Aston Martin to be one of the greatest ultra-luxury car brands in the world”, he said.
Shares in the firm were up 1.8 per cent after the first hour of trading.
Laura Hoy, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the latest results suggested Aston Martin had finally “turned a corner”.
“All told, it was a solid six months for the luxury car-maker, but the group’s far from being able to set the cruise control”, she said.
“Aston Martin’s undoubtedly behind the curve with its electric vehicle strategy, a market that will likely become a much bigger piece of the puzzle as time goes on.
“We’re encouraged by the partnership with Mercedes to bring EVs to market, but it’s unclear whether a dressed-up Merc engine will be enough to wow potential buyers.”