Vision

To enrich what is unique to the Aston Martin brand – the combination of high performance and ultimate luxury together in one automobile. We will achieve this by becoming the most agile and efficient company in the luxury segment, to achieve the best outcome for the product, our customer our investors and other stakeholders.

Strategy

I AM Aston Martin

  • Organisational structure streamlined
  • First steps in building performance driven culture underway
  • Dynamic and innovative mindset perceptible throughout organisation
  • Restructuring savings on track

Portfolio Strategy & Cycle Planning

  • Sustainable product plan defined and aligned with market demand/business plan
  • Expansion of portfolio based on DBX and GT/Sports platform
  • Iconic Aston Martin Valkyrie as the milestone to enter mid-engine market
  • Electrified powertrain and updated infotainment in 2023/24

Go-to-Market

  • F1 engagement increases brand desirability - with over 85 million viewers a race
  • Customer experience strengthened with launch of new configurator and focus on customer journey
  • Network extension in Europe
  • Rebalancing supply to demand successful

Product

  • Product focus on improved margin per car and technical product competitiveness
  • F1 engagement emphasises performances and drives innovation
  • Restructuring of material costs; initial savings already secured

Product Development Efficiency

  • Experienced external hires to lead powertrain and vehicle development
  • Align to industry standard working practices to drive accountability
  • Investment in leading edge PLM/ERP IT architecture
  • Focused on significantly increasing productivity, through cross functional collaboration and digitalisation

Operational Excellence

  • New Chief Operation Office is driving transformation
  • Optimised operational footprint and efficiencies delivers significant annual savings (>30%)
  • New production system driven by technology, digitalisation and efficient supply chain
  • Strategic alignment to operational footprint

Control volume growth with retail led "build-to-order" model and personalisation

  • Focus on restoring price positioning and delivering a more efficient operational footprint to de-risk the business and position it for controlled, long-term, profitable growth.
  • Managing our sports car wholesales to maintain the appropriate balance between supply and demand to maintain a strong order book, pricing power and margin enhancement.
  • Reinvigorating marketing initiatives to raise brand awareness and drive volumes including digitally led, personalized marketing engagements, the exclusive Henniker club and leveraging the Aston Martin F1 team during 2021.

Core product offering focused on a three-pillar strategy: Front-engine, SUVs and mid-engine

  • A three- pillar product strategy to include a core car in each as well as derivatives and in-cycle improvements of each core model to maintain demand over the product life cycle.
  • Special editions to enhance brand exclusivity, profitability and profit margins.
  • The DBX to access the expanding luxury SUV segment and customers’ need for a more versatile, luxurious and comfortable car. DBX deliveries commenced in July 2020.
  • The addition of mid-engine cars to enhance our offering, with a Special mid-engine supercar (Valhalla).

Develop specials pipeline to enhance financial profile

  • Enhancing our core range of cars by the addition of approximately two to three special edition models per year to showcase our technical excellence and perpetuate our brand uniqueness, exclusivity and desirability.
  • Specials demand high price points for the enhanced features they offer, are typically fully allocated prior to any significant capital commitment and generate higher margins than the core range.
  • Deposits are required on allocation which typically allow Specials to be cash flow positive from design to the end of the product life cycle. This helps to maintain and control working capital swings.

Enhance strategic partnerships

  • Carefully chosen partnerships are a source of technical expertise, band strengthening and future growth.
  • The expanded Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Mercedes-Benz AG will enable us to secure access to world-class technologies critical to supporting our long-term product expansion plans, including electric and hybrid powertrains.
  • Our collaboration with Red Bull Advanced Technologies has resulted in the widely anticipated Aston Martin Valkyrie which represents innovative design and performance for a road car.

Cost and investment control

  • Commitment to pursuing available revenue-generating opportunities in a manner that generates a high incremental return on our investments.
  • Key priorities are to focus on new growth areas such as the SUV and the mid-engine markets to drive increased revenue.
  • Introduction of targeted capital investments, a new cost structure and lower sales volumes with premium pricing power to increase cash flows and margins.
  • Over the past 18 months, the Company has significantly reduced the number of contractors and full-time employees through a voluntary redundancy and early retirement programme, to enhance efficiency and reduce costs in line with lower than planned production volumes.
  • We expect that advances, such as our modular based engineering which allows us to use shared systems and components to reduce engineering complexities, will result in cost-saving and model synergies going forward.

ANNUAL REPORT

GOVERNANCE