BMW Group has posted record sales volume and revenues for 2006.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Year on year, group revenues increased 5.0% to EUR48,999m. Revenues generated by the automobiles segment went up 4.2% to EUR47,767m.
The motorcycles segment generated revenues of EUR1,265m and revenues from financial services rose 17.8% to EUR11,079m.
The total number of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles delivered increased 3.5% to 1,373,970 units.
“2006 has been the best financial year in the company’s history. We have reinforced our position as the world’s leading premium manufacturer by posting a new record sales volume figure”, said BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer.
In the light of the positive performance, the group is maintaining its earnings target for the financial year 2006 and will report in March. Higher volumes and internal efficiency improvements should, to a large degree, offset the adverse effects from foreign exchange and higher raw material prices.
“We remain confident that we will be able to post record pre-tax earnings of EUR4bn for 2006” added Reithofer.
The group plans to achieve further growth on the back of its strong brands and product portfolios and to sell more than 1.4m cars in the current year.
“The BMW Group is heading towards a new sales volume record in 2007. We want to maintain our position in the current year as the number one manufacturer in the premium segment” said Reithofer. “All three brands should achieve new sales volume records.”
Capital expenditure in 2006 rose by 8.0% to EUR4,313m. Capitalised development costs recognised as assets increased 10.0% to EUR1,536m as a result of up-front expenditure for new models. Capital expenditure for property, plant and equipment and other intangible assets increased by 6.9% to EUR2.777m, partly in connection with the expansion of the production network.
The number of employees increased slightly during the past year. At the end of 2006, the worldwide workforce comprised 106,575 employees, an increase of 0.7%.
The number of BMW brand cars sold increased 5.2% to 1,185,088 units. The 3 series was again the best-selling model during the past year, up 17.1% to 508,479 units and accounting for 43% of all BMW brand vehicles sold in 2006.
Restricted availability caused by Oxford plant expansion saw Mini sales volume decrease by 6.2% to 188,077 units.
Rolls-Royce recorded a 1.1% with 805 Phantoms sold in 2006.
The financial services business continued to grow in 2006. The volume of new retail customer contracts rose 4.0% to EUR24,449m to a record level. The proportion of new BMW and Mini cars financed by the segment increased in 2006 to 42.4% from 41.1%.
