FTD-Serie: Serie Business English

Fehlt Ihnen im Englischen häufiger das treffende Wort? Kommen Sie trotz guter Vorsätze nicht dazu, ein Magazin oder Buch im Original zu lesen? Dann finden Sie hier interessante und vielfältige Lektüre aus der Financial Times - mit einem Glossar, das Ihnen auf die Sprünge hilft.

Business English: Fresh challenges could put brakes on Bentley's growth

The luxury carmaker is basking in a successful turnround but barriers to continued success lie ahead. von James Wilson

When Franz-Josef Paefgen came to Bentley nearly six years ago he admits he had his doubts about the turnround that Volkswagen was trying at the struggling British luxury carmaker. "I loved the car and the company, but if you saw the scale of the challenge and the inexperienced workforce, it was a bit of a challenge," the chairman and chief executive says. Now Bentley is surging. The company, which then had 1,500 workers and was nearly bust, employs 4,000 and has made €107m of operating profit in the first nine months of this year. Sales are up 19 per cent, with fledgling markets such as China and Russia wowed by the introduction of the Continental. Its spotless factory at Crewe, where VW made a substantial part of its £500m investment in plant and products, is as good a showroom as Bentley could want and the company is acclaimed as a UK manufacturing success - notwithstanding its German ownership. In an implicit endorsement of the positive effect of globalisation, the regional branch of the CBI, the UK employer's organisation, this year gave its directors - half German and half English - an award as the region's best board of the year. Mr Paefgen is enjoying the moment but points out that recent strong sales growth is not likely to continue. "You should not expect another 15 per cent growth now with all the basic models now in place. We have a six-car line-up now, bigger than Bentley has had before. The growth will be more moderate and the business more stable - not exploding as it was over the past five years or so," he says. Bentley has other challenges. One is the continued decline of the US dollar, which is eroding margins in a market that accounts for almost 40 per cent of volumes. "This is a strategic market and so we have to be positioned against the competition in the local market, and that is quite a difficult issue. You can add 1 and a half, 2 per cent a year [to prices] but you cannot add 10, 15 per cent every year," Mr Paefgen says. A longer-term challenge is how the marque's custodians make cars that are more efficient to deal with society's response to climate change. Mr Paefgen says his company will always want to be in the vanguard of legislation. "We certainly want to contribute to the challenge so if everyone is going to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 per cent, we have to do at least 20 per cent, or maybe more. This is accepted. There is no problem," he says. But he admits that if particularly stiff limits on CO2 emissions were imposed "there will be no Bentley any more." He is less concerned by Bentley's growing exposure as a fashion brand, part of a determined move into the mainstream with cars such as the Continental. While admitting he is glad not all customers are "football stars and other trendy people", Mr Paefgen says: "From being an extremely conservative brand we are now a bit more in the mainstream luxury business. But we still have very strong roots and a very strong connection with our traditional brand values. "We still have a lot of traditional customers who appreciate the values and not the latest fashion we deliver with the car. Yes, there is a certain volume that comes and goes with the latest product but there is a strong basis behind that which would still support sales figures."

Jetzt bewerten

Bookmarken Drucken Senden Leserbrief schreiben Fehler melden

Unternehmen	Finanzen
Politik	Management + Karriere
IT + Medien	Wissen
Sport	Auto
Lifestyle	alle