REPORT: Lamborghini sees no recovery until 2011
Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce – Click above for high-res image gallery
After several years of record growth, Lamborghini, like most automakers, is struggling in a tough economy. Sales are down 30% so far in 2009, and the Raging Bull even laid off factory workers for seven weeks in an effort to keep down inventories. Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann told Reuters that he expects the sales slump to continue through 2010, saying that the "crisis is very deep."
Winkelmann points out that sales are down over 40% in the US (Lamborghini's top market), and the company's waiting list has dropped from one year to six months. Lamborghini's struggles closely mirror problems with the economy at large; areas that have been hit by investment banking and real estate woes aren't in the market for Italian supercars.
Regardless of the dim forecast for the next 18 months, Winkelmann is still bullish when it comes to profits. The company cleared 60 million euros in 2008 ($84 million in US funds) and the Italian automaker expects to remain in the black even if sales take a 40% plunge. And the world renown luxury exotic automaker will have to stay solvent while vastly improving its carbon footprint. Lamborghini plans to reduce CO2 emissions coming from its vehicles by 35% in six years.
[Source: Reuters]
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Autblogist! 6:41PM (6/10/2009)
They must be predicting future sales, since the have a friggin' 6 month waiting list! Some automakers wish, they had that problem.
Reply
Skybreak 11:24PM (6/10/2009)
This really bugs me. If they had thousands of unsold cars sitting around like many of the large manufacturers do, then shutting production for seven weeks could be seen as necessary.
But these waiting lists have been created artificially by restricting supply for years so that demand seems high, their cars seem even more desirable due to limited supply, and they get to keep their profit margins at maximum levels.
It's not like Lamborghini is struggling as a company, so why are they putting their factory workers through the pain of an enforced shutdown??
Trent 7:37PM (6/10/2009)
I think the smaller car companies are going to fair better than the larger one. They seem to be able to react quicker.
Reply
Rich 8:44PM (6/10/2009)
This is what I don't get: "After several years of record growth, Lamborghini, like most automakers, is struggling in a tough economy. Sales are down 30% so far in 2009,"
If they had record growth for so long, then surely a *single* *year* of contraction isn't so bad. To gain so much for so long, and then blow it all when a tight spot comes along, they must be run by a bunch of lunatics with no idea how to manage their pennies. What works at the home level must surely work at the business level, right?
Personally, I've had significant losses for a few years, yet now with a pay freeze, cut benefits, no bonuses, and so on, I'm actually finding I'm gaining something this year. But what would I know? I haven't been to bloody business school: I can write without moving my lips.
Reply
waiownsyou 1:02AM (6/11/2009)
I for one am surprised that the US is their top market and not somewhere in Saudi Arabia
Reply
Nick 1:52PM (6/11/2009)
"I for one am surprised that the US is their top market and not somewhere in Saudi Arabia"
The US has over 300 million people, Saudi Arabia far less.........and far poorer. Most of the kingdom is very poor, with a small minority of mega-rich princes and their associates.