Showing posts with label Wraith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wraith. Show all posts
Monday, August 24, 2015
Rolls ROyce nears final build of it's new Technology and Logistics Centre.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars confirmed today that construction of the company’s new Technology and Logistics Centre at Bognor Regis, close to the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, West Sussex, is well underway and on track for a successful launch in early 2016. In celebration, a new Rolls-Royce Wraith drove onto the construction site, marking the first time that one of the super-luxury manufacturer’s motor cars has been present at the new facility.
The Technology and Logistics Centre is located on the Oldlands Farm Business Park on the northern edge of Bognor Regis, eight miles from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The new 30,000m2 facility will provide logistics support to the company’s manufacturing plant and head office at Goodwood, West Sussex for current and future models, and consolidate three current operations: an inbound warehouse for production parts, a distribution centre - including an inbound body store and finished car store - and a workshop.
Described by commentators as ‘Putting the Regis back into Bognor Regis’ at the time of the announcement, the Rolls-Royce Technology and Logistics Centre site has been identified by Arun District Council as part of its ‘Enterprise Bognor Regis’ initiative.
The area is being developed as a new premier business location in West Sussex, reserved for mixed office, industrial and supporting development to deliver a new generation of buildings in a high quality environment to sustain both newly established and growing businesses. Rolls-Royce is the first major business to take advantage of the initiative.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, said, “The construction of our Technology and Logistics Centre is well underway and on track. This considerable investment reflects the ongoing success of our business and demonstrates our full commitment to building our future here in West Sussex.”
He continued, “Rolls-Royce Motor Cars makes a significant positive impact on the local economy and our business is a British luxury manufacturing success.”
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has recently announced that the Company will produce a new drophead tourer in 2016, and confirmed development of a high-bodied car, with an all-new aluminium architecture that can cross any terrain.
Further updates on the construction of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Technology and Logistics Centre will be published later this year.
Rolls-Royce Motor cars unveils "Wraith - Inspired By Fashion"
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and the world of Haute Couture have long been bound by a common philosophy – to take the very finest materials and craft them into the most exquisite and desirable luxury goods, appointed to the customer’s exact specifications. In this spirit, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is delighted to unveil ‘Wraith – Inspired by Fashion’.
Fittingly, the marque’s first showroom in Conduit Street, Mayfair was founded a short step from London’s famous centre of tailoring excellence, Savile Row. Here, Sir Henry Royce and his partner The Honourable Charles Rolls echoed the offerings of their illustrious neighbours by providing London’s most stylish denizens with the automotive equivalent of the finest cloths; a perfectly engineered Rolls-Royce chassis and running gear.
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The customer would then call upon their preferred coachbuilder, who would furnish the car with personal touches and accoutrements specified perfectly to their requirements.
A century later, a bold new generation of customers continue to share the same appetite for commissioning expressions of their taste and lifestyle. ‘Wraith – Inspired by Fashion’ provides a modern take on this grand tradition. Akin to commissioning a fine suit or elegant piece of couture, the journey of creating a highly Bespoke Rolls-Royce motor car begins at the marque’s equivalent of the tailor’s atelier, the Bespoke Design Studio at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England.
Here, the Designers honed the aesthetic theme of the car, drawing inspiration from colour palettes, materials and techniques used in the world of high fashion. The result is an extraordinary interpretation of Wraith’s characteristic blend of power, style and drama.
Giles Taylor, Director of Design for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, commented, “This iteration of Wraith provides a canvas for materials and finishes most commonly associated with the world of fashion. Inspiration was sourced from international catwalks and Bespoke Tailors, resulting in an aesthetically stunning and sartorially on-point motor car.”
‘Wraith – Inspired by Fashion’ two-tone exterior colour scheme of Andalucian White and Arctic White offers a neutral setting for a choice of accent colours, namely Jasmine, Tailored Purple or Mugello Red. Wraith’s signature shoulder-line is accentuated deftly with the addition of a hand-applied feature-line in the chosen highlight colour, alluding to the divergent interior of the motor car.
Like the finest Bespoke garments, beauty is found in the subtlest details. On opening Wraith’s coach-doors you will find a contemporary impression of the car’s classic Arctic White and Black interior colour scheme. Beyond the traditional placement of embroidered headrests, seat stitching and piping, the accent colour has found an elegant new application via a striking two-tone composition steering wheel.
A seamless stitch, a highly complex craft technique from the world of fine tailoring, was mastered and applied to the wheel by the craftspeople in the Leather Shop at the Home of Rolls-Royce.
The very finest garments are crafted exclusively from the most luxurious materials – with tactility, comfort and quality as important an attribute as the aesthetic of the piece itself. The Bespoke design team took inspiration from this approach in appointing the car’s front and rear door pockets with fine silks, adorned with an abstract representation of the Spirit of Ecstasy with each emblem set precisely at fifty-five degrees to complement the lines of the door.
The remarkable craftsmanship and attention-to-detail employed in the creation of any Rolls-Royce is evident in the exquisite application of wood to the dashboard, with the lacquering process for ‘Wraith – Inspired by Fashion’ alone taking nine days to painstakingly complete. This is completed elegantly with the integration of a Bespoke Clock, set as a piece of jewellery, styled exclusively to emit a pearl effect, reminiscent of silk fabrics.
The contemporary fashion theme is completed with the integration of welting, a specialist technique most commonly associated with Bespoke tailoring. Presented as a colourful silk strip, the welting stylishly frames Wraith’s signature leather door-panel.
To mark the occasion of the creation of this timeless Wraith, the motor car took part in a landmark shoot on the production line at the Home of Rolls-Royce in the South of England. The luxurious materials and distinctive features presented in the motor car were accentuated by fashion models, set against a backdrop of the hand-made motor cars.
The global debut of ‘Wraith – Inspired by Fashion’ is available to view via PERISCOPE©, the new live-streaming App of Twitter©. Followers of @RollsRoyceCars on Twitter can download the App from the iTunes App Store and follow the authenticated @RollsRoyceCars feed. The unveiling, which will take place at New York’s PRATT Institute as part of the PRATT Presents Women of Influence in the Business of Style event can be viewed live on 8 May at 4.15pm EDT (9.15pm BST, 10.15pm CET).
The remarkable success of Wraith in attracting a new generation of successful entrepreneurs to the marque has been underpinned by a surge in demand for Bespoke personalisation – a remarkable 95% of all Wraith motor cars left the Home of Rolls-Royce with an element of Bespoke design last year, giving bold expression to the notion that Bespoke is Rolls-Royce.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
BMW Group announces Income, sales and profits for the full financial year.
- New highs for sales volume, revenues and earnings in first quarter
- Group revenues up by 14.7% to € 20.9 billion
- Profit before financial result 20.6% higher at € 2.5 billion
- Profit before tax improved to approximately € 2.3 billion
- Automotive segment EBIT margin of 9.5%
- Earnings outlook for current year confirmed
Group revenues grew significantly by 14.7% to € 20,917 million (2014: € 18,235 million). Profit before financial result (EBIT) for the three-month period rose by 20.6% to € 2,521 million (2014: € 2,090 million), thanks to strong performances by the Automotive, Motorcycles and Financial Services segments.
The EBIT margin for the Group was 12.1% (2014: 11.5%). Profit before tax(EBT) improved by 5.1% to € 2,269 million (2014: € 2,159 million). Net profit came in at € 1,516 million (2014: € 1,458 million), 4.0% ahead of the previous year's first quarter.
Automobile sales volume of the BMW Group climbed by 8.1% to 526,669 units (2014: 487,024 units), thus setting a new record for the period. "We have got off to a good start in 2015", commented Norbert Reithofer, the Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG on Wednesday in Munich.
Automotive segment: EBIT margin at upper end of target range
Automotive segment revenues increased by 14.1% in the first quarter to € 18,893 million (2014: € 16,559 million) due to the increase in sales volume and changes in the fixed exchange rates. EBIT climbed by 13.5% to € 1,794 million (2014: € 1,580 million).
The EBIT margin in the Automotive segment was unchanged at 9.5% and is therefore in the upper half of the targeted range of between 8 and 10%. Profit before tax amounting to € 1,634 million (2014: € 1,643 million; -0.5%) was at a similar level to the previous year. Earnings were held down by a number of factors, such as fair value losses recognized on commodity derivatives.
The BMW brand also recorded a new sales volume high, with 451,576 units (2014: 428,259 units; +5.4%) sold during the first quarter. Tailwind came from numerous models, including the BMW X5 and the 4, 5 and 6 Series, each of which achieved the pole position in their relevant segments.
The BMW 2 Series recorded a total sales volume of 27,930 units (2014: 2,608 units) in the period from January to March. Sales of the BMW 3 Series remained at a high level, with 107,283 units (2014: 116,671 units; -8.0%) sold during the period. As the Convertible and Coupé models are now part of the BMW 4 Series, the previous year's high level was not quite achieved. Sales of the BMW 4 Series more than doubled in the same period to 36,545 units (2014: 17,709 units).
The various models of the BMW X family also remain very popular. First-quarter sales of the BMW X4 totalled 13,925 units. The BMW X5 recorded a 29.7% jump in sales volume to 40,242 units (2014: 31,025 units), while the BMW X6 increased sales by 4.7% to 9,588 units (2014: 9,160 units).BMW i remains on the road to success, with a total of 6,636 units (2014: 2,022 units; +228.2%) sold in the first quarter.
MINI , too, recorded a new high for first-quarter deliveries to customers, registering a sales volume of 74,312 units (2014: 57,868 units), 28.4% up on the previous year. Sales of the MINI (3 and 5 door) more than doubled to 47,922 units (2014: 17,860 units).
In the ultra-luxury segment, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars achieved the second-best first-quarter sales volume performance in its history, with 781 units delivered to customers (2014: 897 units; -12.9%), including 310 units (2014: 305 units; +1.6%) of the Rolls-Royce Ghost.
In line with its strategy of a balanced distribution of worldwide sales, the BMW Group recorded sales volume growth in all major sales regions.
In Europe, sales of the Group's three automobile brands increased by 9.6% to 234,849 units (2014: 214,210 units). Sales volume was 3.4% higher in Germany at 64,610 units (2014: 62,502 units). The number of vehicles sold in the United Kingdom grew by 15.1% to 53,534 units (2014: 46,500 units).
A total of 166,678 units (2014: 158,582 units; +5.1%) was sold in Asia, including sales on the Chinese mainland which grew by 6.4% to 115,078 units (2014: 108,143 units).
In the Americas region, sales volume climbed by 9.9% to 109,743 units (2014: 99,840 units), with sales in the USA rising significantly by 12.6% to 91,479 units (2014: 81,248 units).
Motorcycles segment records new highs
The Motorcycles segment continues to perform well. Segment revenues for the three-month period grew by 20.1% to € 567 million (2014: € 472 million) on the back of good sales volumes and a high-value model mix. EBIT rose by 79.7% to € 115 million (2014: € 64 million), while profit before tax advanced by 81.0% to € 114 million (2014: € 63 million). Sales volume climbed by 9.2% to 31,370 units (2014: 28,719 units). The figures reported for earnings and sales volume represented new first-quarter highs. The upward trend in business has been further boosted by the new BMW R 1200 R, R 1200 RS, S 1000 RR, S 1000 XR and F 800 R models, which have been in the showrooms since March.
Another successful quarter for Financial Services
The Financial Services segment continued to perform well during the period from January to March, recording new first-quarter highs. Segment revenues were 23.9% higher at € 6,058 million (2014: € 4,890 million), while profit before tax rose by 23.4% to € 559 million (2014: € 453 million). The segment result benefited in particular from favourable exchange rate developments.
In total, 384,565 (2014: 348,072) new financing and leasing contracts were signed during the first quarter, 10.5% more than in the previous year. The number of lease and financing contractsincreased by 6.0% to a total of 4,419,817 contracts (2014: 4,170,318 contracts).
Workforce increased
The size of the workforce grew by 5.5% compared to the end of the previous year's first quarter. Overall, the BMW Group had a worldwide workforce of 117,554 employees at the end of the reporting period (31 March 2014: 111,378 employees). The BMW Group continues to recruit engineers and other skilled workers, in order to keep pace with rising demand for BMW Group vehicles, push ahead with innovations and develop new technologies.
BMW Group reaffirms targets for the full year
The BMW Group can look ahead to the rest of the year with confidence, thanks to its attractive range of models. Economic conditions in some regions will, however, continue to pose challenges. The situation on the Russian automobile market, for instance, is likely to remain difficult. The ongoing process of normalisation of the Chinese automobile market is also likely to continue, resulting in less dynamic growth.
The BMW Group forecasts rising personnel costs over the course of the current financial year as well as ongoing upfront expenditure for further growth and new technologies. The political and economic environment is also expected to remain volatile.
The BMW Group expects tailwind in 2015 due to its attractive model range, the market launch of 15 new models and model revisions and because of the forecast positive development of international automobile markets.
The BMW Group reaffirms its targets for the full year. "We are aiming to achieve solid growth in 2015, and hence new record figures for sales volume and profit before tax", commented Reithofer. The BMW Group also predicts that it will remain the world's leading manufacturer of premium vehicles in 2015.
Automotive segment revenues are forecast to grow significantly due to the increase in sales volume and exchange rate factors. The company had previously expected a solid growth in revenues. The EBIT margin in 2015 is forecast to remain within the targeted range of between 8 and 10%.
The BMW Group forecasts that the Motorcycles segment will continue its upward trend in the current year, helped by positive contributions from the new models launched in time for the start of the biking season. Sales of BMW motorcycles over the year as a whole are forecast to grow solidly.
The Financial Services segment should also continue to perform well throughout 2015. Despite rising equity capital requirements worldwide, the BMW Group forecasts a return on equity (RoE) in line with the previous year’s level (2014: 19.4%), thus remaining ahead of the target of at least 18%.
The BMW Group's forecasts for the financial year 2015 are based on the assumption that political and economic conditions remain more or less stable.
The BMW Group – an overview | 1st quarter 2015 | 1st quarter 2014* | Change in % | |
Sales volume | ||||
Automotive | units | 526,669 | 487,024 | 8.1 |
Thereof: | ||||
BMW | units | 451,576 | 428,259 | 5.4 |
MINI | units | 74,312 | 57,868 | 28.4 |
Rolls-Royce | units | 781 | 897 | -12.9 |
Motorcycles | units | 31,370 | 28,719 | 9.2 |
Workforce1 | 117,554 | 111,378 | 5.5 | |
Revenues | € million | 20,917 | 18,235 | 14.7 |
Thereof: | ||||
Automotive | € million | 18,893 | 16,559 | 14.1 |
Motorcycles | € million | 567 | 472 | 20.1 |
Financial Services | € million | 6,058 | 4,890 | 23.9 |
Other Entities | € million | 2 | 2 | - |
Eliminations | € million | -4,603 | -3,688 | -24.8 |
Profit before financial result (EBIT) | € million | 2,521 | 2,090 | 20.6 |
Thereof: | ||||
Automotive | € million | 1,794 | 1,580 | 13.5 |
Motorcycles | € million | 115 | 64 | 79.7 |
Financial Services | € million | 555 | 465 | 19.4 |
Other Entities | € million | 40 | 10 | - |
Eliminations | € million | 17 | -29 | - |
Profit before tax (EBT) | € million | 2,269 | 2,159 | 5.1 |
Thereof: | ||||
Automotive | € million | 1,634 | 1,643 | -0.5 |
Motorcycles | € million | 114 | 63 | 81.0 |
Financial Services | € million | 559 | 453 | 23.4 |
Other Entities | € million | -23 | 57 | - |
Eliminations | € million | -15 | -57 | 73.7 |
Income taxes | € million | -753 | -701 | -7.4 |
Net profit | € million | 1,516 | 1,458 | 4.0 |
Earnings per share2 | € | 2.30/2.30 | 2.22/2.22 | 3.6/3.6 |
*Prior year figures partially adjusted in accordance with IAS 8
1 Figures exclude dormant employment contracts, employees in the work and non-work phases of pre-retirement part-time working arrangements and low wage earners
2 Earnings per share of common stock/preferred stock
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