Bentley hails ‘tremendous’ 2011 as sales surge
LUXURY car brand Bentley has hailed 2011 as a “tremendously good year” as global sales rose 37% with 7,003 cars delivered to customers.
Last month saw the Crewe-based manufacturer enjoy its best single month since the recession with 1,059 cars sold. This is Bentley’s second highest ever monthly sale.
The company, part of Germany’s Volkswagen Group, said America remained its number one market with sales up by over a third to 2,021.
The powerhouse economy of China is now the second biggest market. During 2011 sales nearly doubled to a record 1,839 – this figure is all the more remarkable as Bentley only began selling in mainland China less than a decade ago.
Sales in other regions performed well too. In continental Europe sales rebounded to 1,187 (an increase of 53%) led by strong demand in Germany where sales surged 88%.
The home market of the UK proved to be “extremely challenging” but still saw an increase of over 5% with 1,031 cars sold.
Chairman and chief executive, Wolfgang Dürheimer, said: “It has been a tremendously good year for Bentley. The dramatic sales growth reflects a global strength to the brand and a recognition of the quality, craftsmanship and engineering excellence of our cars.
“It has been particularly pleasing to see renewed interest in Bentley in established as well as and new and emerging markets, all of which is contributing to a positive financial result for 2011.
“We want that success to continue and, with a new Continental V8 set to attract new customers in 2012, have ambitious but realistic plans which reflect global economic conditions as much as our new product line up.”
Bentley said the 2011 performance was the result of strong demand across the range, with the new Continental GT unsurprisingly proving the most popular Bentley with 2,404 GTs delivered – over a third of Bentley’s total sales volume.
Sales were boosted significantly in December with the first deliveries of the new soft-top Continental GTC.
Bentley is also looking at entering the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) market for the first time – in his previous role with Porsche, Wolfgang Dürheimer launched the Cayenne.
Commenting on this, he said: “If we bring this (SUV) to the market it will be positioned significantly above the vehicles that are currently available in this segment,”
