Aston Martin narrows losses as demand picks up

Aston Martin narrowed its losses last year as revenues climbed back above pre-pandemic levels, boosted by customer deposits for its high-price special cars and increased demand for its luxury sport utility vehicle.

Annual pre-tax losses at the luxury carmaker, which is in the middle of a five-year turnround plan under Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, shrank from £466mn to £213.8mn. That compared with a loss of £104mn in 2019, the year before the pandemic struck, and when the company was under its previous management.

Sales last year rose to £1.1bn from £611.8mn, while the average selling price for its cars climbed to £150,000, higher than both 2020 and 2019, helped by the DBX sport utility vehicle and more pricing discipline.

Aston expects that car sales will rise to more than 6,600 this year from 6,178 last year. It wants to produce 10,000 a year and generate £2bn in annual sales by the middle of the decade.

Stroll, who led a £540mn bailout of the company in April 2020, wants to restore Aston’s luxury credentials by removing excess cars from dealerships, taking the brand back into Formula One, and introducing a range of mid-engine cars to compete with Ferrari.

During the year the company booked £71mn from customer deposits on the open-roof version of its Valkyrie hypercar and for its Valhalla supercar.

The business was stung with £171mn financing costs compared with £75mn a year earlier, because of high-interest loans worth £1.1bn the company took out in October of 2020.

Stroll said this month he wants to begin paying back the loans when the business begins generating cash, which he expects next year.

In January, Aston said that delays to its £2.5mn Valkyrie hypercar would cost the business £15mn. It only delivered 10 models last year. On Wednesday, the company said it expects to produce between 75 and 90 of the cars this year, although said it is still fine-tuning the production process.