{"id":202090,"date":"2021-05-14T14:31:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T18:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=202090"},"modified":"2021-05-17T14:19:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T18:19:00","slug":"aston-martins-new-ceo-takes-the-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/05\/aston-martins-new-ceo-takes-the-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin\u2019s New CEO Takes the Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Having been owned by any number of automakers and industrialists, Aston Martin Lagonda is once more getting a new lease of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crisis-prone automaker barely skirted bankrupt for the eighth time last year, thanks to a cash infusion by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll and an increase in Daimler AG\u2019s equity stake to 20%<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, up from 2.6 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
New Aston CEO Tobias Moers came over after leading Mercedes-AMG.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This was followed by the August arrival of the firm’s newest CEO, Tobias Moers, the former chief executive officer of Mercedes-AMG. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new chief executive and new goals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Moers came to Aston Martin Lagonda after more than 25 years at Daimler AG<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, most recently as Chairman of the Management Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Technical Officer of Mercedes-AMG. During his tenure, Mercedes-AMG more than doubled its product portfolio and quadrupled the number of AMG units sold as part of a financially successful brand management strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes as Stroll, now Aston Martin Lagonda Executive Chairman<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, is looking to attain annual sales of 10,000 units, and achieve earnings of 500 million pounds, or $704.6 million, on annual revenues of 2 billion pounds, or $2.8 billion, by 2025. For now, merely securing a profit would be notable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll bailed out Aston Martin and is now executive chairman.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Aston Martin posted a first-quarter loss of 42.2 million pounds, or $59 million; that’s down from the 110-million-pound loss, or $153 million, from the same period last year. But revenue increased to 244 million pounds, or $340 million, a 153% increase year-over-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Action plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The improving financial picture comes as Moers puts his plans into action by selling excess inventory, simplifying production, revising its product strategy, and entering into a technology agreement with Mercedes-AMG, which already supplies engines to Aston Martin, a point of contention with some brand enthusiasts, even though Aston Martin hasn\u2019t designed and built its own engines from scratch since the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is our obligation to fix the business and the company to get on a much more efficient level to produce and manufacture cars,\u201d Moers said, during a recent interview with TheDetroitBureau.com from the company\u2019s Gaydon, Warwickshire headquarters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A company like us, you cannot run your own electrical architecture, it’s impossible. You’re not going to be able to be pay the bill for that. A Vantage could give a good margin, but we have to fix the business around us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This snarling V-12 puts out 1,000 horsepower and 11,000 rpms and it powers the new Aston Martin Valkyrie.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Moers is looking for the company\u2019s production to be driven by demand, rather than wholesale supplying dealers with cars. \u201cWe started into the year close to 3,000 cars in stock,\u201d Moers said, \u201cand this is not good.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This explains why Moers will be keeping its two production facilities, in Gaydon, England and Saint Athan, Wales, but closing Gaydon’s paint shop. Saint Athan\u2019s shop is new and can handle 10,000 units a year \u2014 more than enough to accommodate the 4,000 vehicles a year Moers sees as the brand\u2019s natural demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beyond what’s on the ground, Moers is streamlining future products by cancelling the hybrid V-6 planned for the Valhalla mid-engine supercar, and replacing it with a Mercedes-AMG hybrid electrified powertrain that will produce 1,000 horsepower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Valkyrie<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, powered by a Cosworth-built V-12, is expected later this year, along with a mild hybrid version of the DBX, followed next year by a high-performance variant. And look for the Vantage, DB11 and DBS to receive mid-cycle facelifts. Further out, the company is planning to produce a fully electric Aston Martin, as well as vehicles based on the DBX platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Aston Martin Valkyrie takes the British brand into a new realm of performance.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“It is not a challenge to bring all these products to life, that’s not the challenge,\u201d Moers said. \u201cBut rebuild the brand and get a clear definition of what Aston Martin stands for? That’s one of the challenges, but we have a clear plan to do that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new CEO said that the company\u2019s IPO amidst crumbling finances caused consumers to doubt the firm\u2019s continued existence, which is now assured, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal for us is turning Aston Martin into a self-sufficient company, a self-maintaining company. You can see the strength of the brand. Everybody knows what Aston Martin is; but what does Aston Martin stand for? For sure we could be Ferrari competitors, but I don’t want to talk about being a competitor. We have to define our own path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that path doesn\u2019t include a takeover by Daimler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is no hidden agenda. I’m not here because they’re going to the buy whole company; that’s not the reason I’m here,\u201d Moers said. \u201cThere are some cars out there which we count as a true competitor; their life is a bit too easy at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look for that to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having been owned by any number of automakers and industrialists, Aston Martin Lagonda is once more getting a new lease of life. That lease, funded by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, included the company\u2019s not-so-new CEO, former Mercedes-AMG chief Tobias Moers. TheDetroitBureau has the interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13752,"featured_media":148074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,9],"tags":[578,581,580,579,344],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202090"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202093,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202090\/revisions\/202093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202090"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=202090"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=202090"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=202090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}