The V12 Vanquish, Aston Martin’s top-of-the-range supercar, has a feature called “launch control”. Press the button on the all-carbon dashboard and the car takes off like a jet fighter, all roaring engine and spinning wheels, leaving the competition breathing petrol fumes at the lights.
And that is exactly what executives hope will happen to the car company’s corporate fortunes now that it is all fuelled up with cash, a new man is at the wheel, and it has the open road of new global markets to head for.
Neil Slade is responsible for steering the company along the parts of the route that pass through the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, and south and central Asia.
“Just a few years ago we hardly sold any cars in this part of the world, it was roughly split one third each between UK, America and Europe,” says Mr Slade.
"Now 25 per cent of our cars are sold outside those areas. And Dubai is our third-best dealership in the world, after Beverly Hills and Mayfair. That is some achievement already," says the man who has been running Aston Martin's business in the region as general manager for the past four years.
The global diversification strategy is a key part of the latest attempt to put Aston on a firm financial and commercial footing.
The company – founded in 1913 in London – has always been admired among motor enthusiasts for its stylish, powerful vehicles, and for decades has been regarded as the epitome of British classiness thanks to its association with the fictional spy James Bond.
But in the same time Aston has been shaken, indeed stirred, by a series of financial crises. Petrolheads loved the cars, but not in sufficient numbers, and not set against the serious competition from brands such as Ferrari, Porsche and Maserati, to make financial sense.
This is a familiar story in the world of luxury and high-performance cars, but Aston Martin’s rivals all found security in the arms of bigger, financially-sound motor corporations. In Ford, Aston too found a rich benefactor for a while, but in 2007 the Americans decided to cut their losses and sell.
“The company has gone bust five times in 100 years, so there has to be a sound financial base. Everybody knows we need to be profitable,” says Mr Slade, who has been with the firm the past 11 years.
Aston’s current controlling shareholders are certainly in it for the money as much for the thrills: Investment Dar of Kuwait, with 57 per cent, and Investindustria of Italy, with 33 per cent. The balance is held by individuals and, interestingly, a 5 per cent stake acquired by Mercedes in 2013.
So far these financiers have been as good as their word, backing two rounds of fund-raising in the past year that pulled in £700 million (Dh3.98 billion) for Aston. A profit of £66m last year completes the comparatively rosy current financial picture.
But motor companies can burn cash faster than their cars burn petrol, and the medium-term strategy, drawn up by new global chief executive Andy Palmer, will be an expensive business, Mr Slade explains.
“The financial crisis cut the number of cars we produce from around 7,500 to 4,000, but we’ve held it at that, which I believe is not a bad achievement. But the aim now is to roughly double the size of the company again in sports cars,” he says.
On top of that, Mr Palmer’s strategy involves the rolling out of new product lines in the luxury saloon and “crossover” segments of the ultra-premium market currently exploited so well by Porsche and Bentley.
These are radical departures for Aston, whose "core car" hitherto has been the DB series made famous by the Bond movies. The DB9 is being upgraded with Mercedes technology, a new DB11 is expected to be formally unveiled next year, while a limited edition DB10 is lined up for the new James Bond film Spectre this year.
Mercedes technology? What would the quintessential British gentleman Bond think of that? “I think he would be super-happy, because he would have more gadgets to play with,” says Mr Slade. “But it doesn’t mean we are making it into a German car. Mercedes is at the front of the technology pack, so why not take advantage? Anyway, we need it. We cannot afford the R&D to produce the technology ourselves.”
The enhanced technology will go down well in the Middle East too, he believes. The region – served from Dubai – has become an important part of the company’s strategy.
Although Mr Slade declines to break down sales figures for the region, it must be on a steep upwards trend following a couple of years of “dormant” business after the crisis. Last year he sold 100 cars in the UAE, and there are plans to open a showroom in Abu Dhabi next year.
There is no particular need for a “hard sell” to potential buyers in the Arabian Gulf.
“They are more likely than other parts of the world to make their cars bespoke – with gold fittings, trimmings or monograms in the car, which of course adds to the cost. And they like to change their cars frequently, which is good for us,” says Mr Slade.
They are also keen to buy into the Aston legend. “A Ferrari driver is typically male, aged between 18 and 27. An Aston Martin is for the more refined gentleman, a rather more discrete, understated individual,” he says. Until he reaches for the launch control button at the traffic lights, that is.
fkane@thenational.ae
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