The middle east and specifically the UAE has been the best market for Rolls Royce in recent years, that made the other British luxury brand, Aston Martin thinking why shouldn’t we get a bigger share?! As the Aston’s boss Ulrich Bez says, their goal is to sell 10 percent of their cars in the ME.

Dubai: British luxury carmaker Aston Martin, majority owned by Kuwait-based investors, aims to sell 10 per cent of its cars in the Middle East as part of its efforts to expand beyond the main Europe and US markets.

Chief executive officer Ulrich Bez said the current ownership is committed to growing the company by investing in product development despite the global automotive sector being in trouble from an economic slump.

“We had in 2007 our best year in the company’s 95-year history; 2008 was our second best year, and we will still be profitable even if 2009 is globally a year of downturn,” Bez told Gulf News in an interview in Dubai recently.

Bez said the luxury car segment may have seen a drop of 30 to 50 per cent in the first quarter of this year, but his company has posted better than average sales and saw a 30 per cent sales decline compared with the same period last year.

Aston Martin, the brand made famous by James Bond movies, will produce between 4,500 and 5,000 cars this year compared with nearly 6,000 it made in 2008.

“This [reduced production] is the direct result of the hesitation in the market, the negative discussions, and the negative reports in the press,” said Bez, who was in the UAE on a brand-promotion mission.

The company’s aim is to sell 10 per cent of its cars in the region, he told a gathering.

Aston Martin sells 90 per cent of its cars in the UK, US and Western Europe, but has been trying to diversify its sales with greater focus on China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Bez said the company is looking to raise its capital to fund expansion and new products.

source: Gulf News via Zawya