BETTER PARTSLotus creates financial Turnaround
Hethel (UK), 11. August 2017
Long Lotus was considered to be unprofitable, the purest money destruction machine. A bad memory of the years between 2009 and 2012, just when then-CEO Dany Bahar, the tradition showed companies with high-sounding plans (at the Paris Salon of 2010, the five new luxury models, which should come between 2013 and 2015 on the market) and very little brand sense in almost the Ruin engines. Then the largest shareholder, Proton in 2012 also sold its shares in Malaysian carmaker DRBHICOM, which turned the money faucet. Suppliers could not be paid, the straps were down. In spite of reasonable orders.
Back to the roots
A radical change was needed. Or better: a return to the traditional Strengths of the brand. Very light, fast, pure and special sports cars for real enthusiasts build. Supplemented, however, with a significantly improved quality and a massive reduction in costs. This quadrature of the circle, people trusted in 2014, the new Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales. And the Luxembourgers seem to have very well understood what the Lotus represents, and where the weaknesses of the brand were. The development of completely new models has stopped, instead they tried what they had, make them better and more attractive.
Numbers of hope
In the past years, the Lineup was expanded to the models Elise, Exige and Evora successively. Especially a variety of highly focused, desirable and expensive special models such as the Exige Cup 380, the Evora 400 sports, Evora GT430 or 3-Eleven are expected to last properly flushed money into the coffers. Lightweight construction and the total involvement of the driver were stronger than ever in the focus and this approach seems to pay off. Also, the expansion of the global dealer network from 138 Farms in 2014 to the current level of 215 is likely to have been unimportant. Last year, Lotus was able to increase its sales in Continental Europe, by 57 percent. In North America there was a six-fold increase of the paragraph. The operating profit increased to two million pounds (2.2 million euros). In the previous fiscal year, it suffered a loss of 16.3 million pounds (18 million euros). The loss before tax stood at 45.5 million Euro, in the past fiscal year there were "only" 12.4 million. For the financial year 2017/2018 it is expected for the first time in decades with a pre-tax profit.
Geely takes over
This development pleased, of course, the Boss: "Our vastly improved profitability, and our increase in income mean that Lotus is now for the first time in many years, a self-sustaining and sustainable future for the company." And Gales, added: "We are now in the perfect Position to develop the next Generation of Lotus sports cars." It should also help that the Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to which it belongs since 2010, Volvo has recently acquired a majority stake in Lotus.
All-new Elise comes out in 2020
The next new model is likely to be a Roadster Version of the Evora. Also on a slightly less radical brother of the 3-Eleven 4-and Eleven, to be worked on. By far the most important project is the 2020 proposed, all-new Elise-Generation. The forthcoming SUV-the program seems to be stuck in currently, rather more at the bottom of the drawer. However, a kind of Crossover could be quite important if one wants to achieve the targeted sales goals. Of least about 2,000, you would like to climb to 2018 of 2,500 cars sold per year. 2020 4,000 vehicles are the target.(sw)