Bentley’s 2021 global sales reached a new all-time high of 14,659 vehicles, helping profits soar. The 103-year-old brand followed that with a healthy first quarter in which its average revenue per car rose to 212,000 euros from 184,000 euros during the same period last year. Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark told Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs why his strategy of being hyper vigilant on production costs while keeping the range as up-to-date as possible should ensure long-term profit stability even during market dips.
You had a successful 2021 in terms of sales and profit. Was it a one off?
Looking backward, yes. Looking forward, I hope not. If you look at the best players in our sector, these bumper years are bigger and come more often. We have made profits since the launch of the Continental GT [in 2018], but they have been nowhere near what the best competition in the sector have achieved. We had a good year, but we need to move from regular mediocre profits and occasional disasters to regular strong profits and occasional mediocre ones. That's the norm in the luxury sector. We expect to fall, but not fall into huge losses. That's what the whole restructuring and brand reset have been about in the last couple of years.