Rolls-Royce sales rebound as luxury car firm commits to UK
The boss of luxury car maker Rolls-Royce today said that the company was committed to a future in the UK, adding that demand for the firm’s vehicles has come back after the coronavirus lockdown.
Speaking with Reuters as Rolls-Royce launched a new £250,000 car, Torsten Muller-Otvos described the firm as one of the “crown jewels” of British industry.
Although many car makers have been considering the future of their operations in this country due to the UK’s imminent departure from the EU, Muller-Otvos said the firm had no plans to move out of Britain.
“We are committed to Britain. I would even call us being part of the British industrial crown jewels. For that reason, Rolls-Royce belongs to Britain”, he said.
The firm, which is owned by German auto giant BMW, was the first car company in the UK to reopen its business, with production recommencing on 4 May.
It took the decision to shutter its plant at Goodwood in West Sussex from 23 March in order to protect the health of its employees.
Although sales for the first half of the year were down 30 per cent, Muller-Otvos said that markets around the world had recovered and were nearly back to normal.
“We see a very fruitful business now coming back from Asia, also Europe is coming back on track, the Americas just delivered an excellent July result and August result.
“I am quite optimistic looking into 2021, particularly on the back of a very strong order bank we have already on our books.”
The firm will be hoping that the pandemic will be a short-lived blip after 2019, which Rolls-Royce hailed as the best in its hundred year history.