Aston Martin

Ex-Lomond boss Hugh McMahon buys dealership in Edinburgh

Motor industry entrepreneur Hugh McMahon has bought Murray Motor Group’s Rolls Royce and Aston Martin business in Edinburgh.

Partnered by son Chris, the former Lomond Audi owner has taken over the luxury car dealership in a buy-out worth more than of £3 million. The deal was funded by Barclays’ Scottish corporate banking team.

Hugh McMahon has spent a lifetime in the motor trade starting out as a technician at the age of 16 before moving into sales – then management. He sold the Lomond Audi business in July 2012 and has been looking for a suitable enterprise since.

The Sighthill outlet is the sole authorised dealership for the luxury car brands in Scotland. The business currently turns over £20 million annually and the father-and-son team have plans to grow this to £30 million in the medium term.

Hugh McMahon said: ‘There is a strong opportunity to grow sales of both brands which are moving into an exciting stage of their development – Rolls Royce is celebrating 10 years under the ownership of the BMW Group and Aston Martin has been rejuvenated by new investment.’

Working with son Chris, who is operations director for the business and Brian Ritchie, finance director, Hugh also has plans to expand the dealership’s offering of luxury and performance used cars.

He added: ‘Our first priority, however, is to consolidate our existing position. We have taken over a good business but I want to make it a great business – for customers and employees.’

Source http://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/luxury-car-dealership-changes-hands-3m-buyout/82750

Aston Martin creates 250 jobs in South Warwickshire

Most of our blogs have recently talked about the growth we are seeing in the luxury car market. Nothing cements this more than the reports we are seeing of luxury car manufacturers investing money and creating jobs for new developments and proposed expansion. The latest news comes from the south Warwickshire-based luxury car-maker Aston Martin who is investing £20 million in new developments, with the creation of 250 jobs.

The 10,000 square metre extension will be the firm’s biggest development at its headquarters in Gaydon in recent history as it looks ahead to projects on creating new sports cars.

The new jobs – to be recruited for over the next few months – will be in a number of areas, including engineering, manufacturing and commerce.

Keith Stanton, Aston Martin’s manufacturing operations director, said: “I am very happy to be able to execute another part of our manufacturing strategy by extending our already highly-efficient facility.

“The improvements at Gaydon are a big step forward and the development will enable us to streamline and finesse our manufacturing processes which, in turn, will allow us to be leaner and even more competitive.”

He added: “We have the vision of being the best producer in the luxury sports car sector and a new facility, along with the support of our flexible, highly-efficient workforce, will enable us to achieve our goal.”

Meanwhile, more than 500 applications have been submitted for the 12 places available in the latest round of the firm’s apprenticeship scheme and 14 graduates will be taken on as employees this year.

Chief financial officer Hanno Kirner said: “We have confirmed that the coming years will see Aston Martin implementing the biggest investment programme in the 101-year history of the brand, with a plan to inject over £500 million into the company’s next generation of high performance sports cars.”

This first round of developments, expected to be complete next year, will include a new chassis and pilot build facility, new offices and an extension of the parts and logistics storage area.

Source http://www.kenilworthweeklynews.co.uk/news/local-news/south-warwickshire-luxury-car-brand-to-create-250-new-jobs-1-6087342

Aston Martin unveils 2 special editions for the North American market

Aston Martin are hoping to boost sales in North America by creating special editions of the V8 Vantage and the DB9, which will only be available in the North American market alone.

Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd., the British maker of the luxury sports cars driven by James Bond, is unveiling two special edition vehicles at the New York International Auto Show this week.

Aston Martin will debut a GT version of its V8 Vantage, starting at $99,900, and a carbon edition of its DB9, which begins at $199,995, according to an e-mailed statement. Both cars will go on sale in the third quarter, Julian Jenkins, Aston Martin’s president of the Americas, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“We’d like to sell a few more cars and we believe this will offer an opportunity to broaden our appeal and bring a few more customers to the brand,” Jenkins said in the interview.

Aston Martin sold 4,200 cars last year, 11 percent more than in the prior year. North America represents about 30 percent of its sales.

The Vantage GT will come in either a coupe or a roadster body style with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic transmission. Both powertrains will have a top speed of 190 miles per hour.

The Vantage GT automatic gets 16 mpg in combined driving. The carbon edition of the 12-cylinder DB9 starts at $199,995. Aston Martin doesn’t list the mileage for the DB9.

Aston Martin is the rare global luxury-automaker that doesn’t belong to a larger manufacturing group. The company said last year that Germany’s Daimler AG will own as much as 5 percent of Aston Martin as part of a deeper agreement to share technology with the British sports-car maker. Daimler is an investor in electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), which aims to begin deliveries in China this month.

Daimler’s Mercedes-AMG high-performance division will help develop V-8 engines for Aston Martin’s next-generation models. The Stuttgart, Germany-based maker of Mercedes-Benz vehicles will receive shares without voting rights in the non-cash deal.

In January 2013, Aston Martin said it planned to invest 500 million pounds ($819 million) over the following four years. The carmaker is backed by London-based Investindustrial, a private-equity fund whose previous assets include high-end motorcycle maker Ducati, which Volkswagen AG’s Audi bought in 2012

Source – http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-15/aston-martin-unveils-sub-100-000-edition-for-north-america.html