New products, like the M6 and 6-Series Grand Coupe, shown here at their Geneva debut, should yield another good year for BMW, the maker predicts.
A mix of new products and a resurgent luxury market paid off handsomely for the BMW Group last year, the Bavarian maker reporting all-time records for sales, unit volume and earnings.
While there were a few weak points, 2011 marked some significant milestones, company officials noted – BMW notably pushing past rivals Lexus and Mercedes-Benz, for the first time, to become the best-selling luxury brand in the critical U.S. market.
“The past year has been the best year in the BMW Group’s corporate history, proclaimed Norbert Reithofer, the Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “We have achieved new sales volume, revenues and earnings highs, and exceeded our targets.”
With additional products, notably including the all-new 3-Series on tap for 2012, the BMW Group forecasts that sales volumes will continue to develop positively in the current year.
“We expect the past year’s record-breaking sales volume performance to be surpassed in 2012”, added Reithofer.
There was a downside, cautioned Jochen Gehrke, an automotive analyst with Deutsche Bank. The changeover for new models, such as the new 3-Series, has been costly, and BMW had to accept reduced prices for outgoing products. So, Gehrke said, “Revenues came in slightly ahead of expectations while the (company’s overall profit) margin was a touch weaker.”
(For a first look at the Geneva Motor Show launch of the BMW M6, Click Here.)
Overall, the yearend financial statement showed BMW revenues increased by 13.8% to $92 billion.
The company’s profits before taxes increased 52.1% to $9.8 billion, profits before financial results, or EBIT, increased 56.9% to $10.7 billion and the group’s net profit jumped 51.3% to $6.6 billion.
The total number of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand cars delivered to customers increased by 14.2% to a new record figure of 1,668,982.
The only segment where BMW showed a demonstrable weakness was in the motorcycle market. Segment revenues rose by 10.1% to $1.8 billion on the back of sales volume growth. But as a result of restructuring at its Husqvarna subsidiary, EBIT and profits dropped 37%.
On the other hand, the automotive segment reported revenues increased 16.8%, while EBIT jumped by 71.7% and profits increased 75.5%. The principal factors contributing to the significant improvement in segment earnings were the sharp rise in sales volume on the one hand and improvements to the cost structure on the other, BMW explained.