Wheels come off Aston Martin as sales fall due to virus crisis

Aston Martin sales have been hit by the coronavirus crisis, figures out today show.

In the six months to 30 June 2020, total retail sales (1,770 cars)were down 41%, ahead of wholesales in unit terms leading to an 869 unit reduction in dealer inventory.

Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin Lagonda Executive Chairman, said: “This has been a very intense and challenging six months. In January, I and my co-investors in the Yew Tree Consortium, committed to make a significant investment in Aston Martin and I took on the role of Executive Chairman from April to give clear leadership to the business, our partners and our dealers. Since then we have been fully engaged in executing the initial reset in order to achieve our ambition to build Aston Martin into one of the great global luxury car brands.

“Obviously, it has been a challenging period with our dealers and factories closed due to Covid-19, in addition to aligning our sales with inventory with the associated impact on financial performance as we reposition for future success. However, I have been most impressed that through this most challenging of times we have been able to reduce our dealers’ sports car inventory by 869 units.

“We have also taken action to right-size the cost base in alignment with our plans and raised £688m of new equity from my consortium and other investors, to strengthen the balance sheet and improve liquidity. Throughout this time our primary concern has been the safety of our colleagues and I am full of admiration for how they have responded to the many challenges Covid-19 has presented.”