Bentley's Revenue Rises Despite 200 Cars Lost In The Sea Of Azores And Sales To China Struggled By COVID-19

Bentley Flying Spur 40,000th edition (Antara/Bentley)

JAKARTA - British luxury carmaker Bentley on Thursday announced a 162 percent increase in first-quarter operating profit compared to the same period last year, amid car drifting incidents and shipping constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit China again.

According to Reuters news today, Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark said there were 200 Bentley cars that were lost at sea when the ship caught fire in the Azores archipelago, Portugal, in February 2022.

The ship, called the Felicity Ace, was carrying at least 4,000 cars, some of them luxury Bentleys and Porsches, which departed from the German port of Emden for Rhode Island in the United States.

Adrian Hallmark said, of the hundreds of Bentley cars, 75 of them were special edition cars that were ordered by certain customers at a price that was more expensive than the Bentley version in general.

In addition to the incident, Adrian Hallmark also revealed that it is difficult to ship cars to China - the world's largest automotive market - which is experiencing another pandemic, so the company is unable to provide maximum service to customers there.

"The crisis we're going through due to COVID-19, semiconductors and the tragedy of Ukraine has not reduced customers' desire to invest in high-end luxury goods and certainly not in Bentleys," Hallmark told Reuters.

"We are really fine," Adrian said as quoted by Antara.

Hallmark said that if there were no supply chain issues, the company could produce about 15,000 cars this year, compared with 14,659 sold last year.

First-quarter vehicle sales fell 5 percent to 3,203 units from 3,358 a year earlier. Their sales also fell 9 percent in America and 29 percent in China.

However, average revenue per car rose 15 percent to 212,000 euros from 184,000 euros a year earlier. This is driven by consumers' desire to buy the highest variant of the car, or a special edition version that provides greater profits for the company.

"Dealers are releasing limited editions, as well as special packages for individual customers, and that's growing in popularity," he said.

As a result, Bentley's revenue rose 41 percent to 813 million euros compared to 578 million a year earlier. The luxury car company's operating profit rose to 170 million euros from 65 million euros.