The automotive company has seen an increase of 55% in sales of cars compared to 2014 and has seen the creation of 36 new dealerships worldwide.
The automotive company has seen an increase of 55% in car sales compared to last year and has seen the creation of 36 new dealerships worldwide.
Over the 2014/15 financial year the company sold 2015 units, compared to 1296 units for the previous financial year. Much of this increase is due to growing orders abroad, with China seeing a 186% increase in the amount of cars sold in the financial year.
Other notable international sales include France and Germany that saw 177% and 130% over the previous year respectively.
Speaking about the results CEO of Group Lotus plc, Jean-Marc Gales commented: “This positive result is something that we have not witnessed at Lotus for many years.
“We are meeting both time and budget deadlines. Yet, we appreciate that we still have hard work to do to maintain the progress. Our continued expansion demonstrates the customer confidence in Lotus and that our product development strategy is meeting its objectives, while remaining true to our core pillars of efficiency, light weight, high performance and driving purity in the most desirable packaging.”
The company has had a history of financial difficulty ever since the 1980’s. During the 80’s production fell to less than 400 units a year.
Since then a slew of different CEOs and owners has led to Lotus struggling to grow consistently. Since 1985 the company has bounced around several different owners including, General Motors, Toyota and Proton – who remain the current majority shareholders in the company.
The previous CEO, Dany Bahar, wanted to shift Lotus towards luxury cars instead of the small, fast, well handling cars the firm had become famous for. Jean-Marc Gales replaced him and has since stated that he wants each new car to be, “lighter and faster than its predecessor.”
With new models set to come out later this year the company is upbeat about the current trend continuing. Gales has spent time as head of global sales for Mercedes and his pragmatic approach to car production has helped, in his words, “discipline” at the Norfolk based manufacturer.
He went on to note: “The reason that we are making such vital headway lies in our employees’ commitment to avoid delays in project deliveries and I am immensely pleased with the cultural changes that have been effected by our staff across the whole of Lotus. Looking to the future, we are working on new Lotus cars and have a number of exciting announcements and reveals over the next 18 months.”
