Lamborghini profits ups 27 percent in 2008, expects sales to drop in 2009
Lamborghini said today that its pretax profits were up 27.4 percent with the help of cost cutting methods while its sales remained virtually flat in 2008.
CEO Stephan Winkelmann told Reuters that he expects sales to drop this year as wealthy car shoppers held-off on big purchases. He said that Lamborghini is prepared to wait for the market to recover.
“We are ready for 2009 and 2010 to have no growth,” Winkelmann told Reuters.
Lamborghini has been cutting cost by sending a third of its staff home during temporary shutdowns of its plant in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. Winkelmann said that the company has no plans to permanently lay off workers. He said that Lamborghini will continue to offer a new car every year and has no plans to cut budget on product development.
A third of the limited run of 350 units of the company’s latest model, the Murcielago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce, have already been sold.
– By: Omar Rana
Source: Reuters
