Rolls-Royce sold 5,152 of its luxury cars last year, the highest number in its 116-year history.
Torsten Müller-Otvös, the chief executive, said he was “very smiley, very happy” as he announced an “extraordinary year” of global sales.
Müller-Otvös said sales had increased by 25% on the 4,107 cars sold in 2018, driven mostly by demand for the Cullinan, its three-tonne sports utility vehicle. The SUV, named after the biggest diamond, costs upwards of £264,000 and was launched in May 2018.
“Worldwide demand last year for our Cullinan SUV has driven this success and is expected to stabilise in 2020,” Müller-Otvössaid. “It is a ringing testament to the quality and integrity of our products, the faith and passion of our customers and, above all, the skill, dedication and determination of our exceptional team in Goodwood and around the world and our dedicated global dealer network.”
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, as the company is officially known to distinguish it from jet-engine maker Rolls-Royce, said sales were strongest in the US. About a third of its cars were delivered to customers in North America, followed by China, which accounted for about a quarter.
“We are not really in the car business – we are in the luxury goods business,” he told the BBC. “All our clients have multiple cars in their garages. It is more that you look for something that’s very special. We are famous for bespoke so you can basically customise a Rolls-Royce to build your own masterpiece and I think that has attracted quite a lot of clients worldwide.”
Müller-Otvös said the number of cars designed to customers’ specifications hit a new high in 2019.
“The Bespoke collective at the home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, comprises several hundred creative designers, engineers and craftspeople,” the company said. “These highly talented men and women take enormous pride in fulfilling unprecedented levels of customer requests for bespoke personalisation and delivering on beautiful individual commissions such as the Rose Phantom.”
The Rose Phantom was requested by Swedish billionaire Ayad al-Saffar, who asked Rolls-Royce to fill the interior with roses. More than 1m embroidered satin stitches were needed to create a fantasy rose garden interior with an entanglement of greenery, flowers, and butterflies.
The Phantom Rose used in the design was created for Rolls-Royce by the British rose breeder Philip Harkness, and can only be found in the rose garden at the company’s headquarters in Goodwood. Al-Saffar said he decided on the design while chatting to Rolls-Royce’s designers in the rose garden.
Rolls-Royce’s bespoke designer, Ieuan Hatherall, said: “The patron wanted to create that same feeling of awe; an abundance of flowers to lift the spirit and celebrate nature’s decadent beauty, in the Rose Phantom’s serene interior.”
On the future after Brexit, Müller-Otvös said: “What needs to be delivered are proper, long-lasting trade deals not only with the European Union but also with the entire rest of the world,” he said. “Free flow of goods and people, that is very important for us.”
He said Rolls-Royce was committed to remaining in the UK. The company was bought by Germany’s BMW in 1998.
