At the company#;s annual earnings press briefing, incoming BMW chief executive Helmur Panke said he was fully confident that 2002 would see further improvements in profit, revenues and unit sales.
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BMW AG#;s pre-tax profits for 2001 rose by 59.5% to 3.242 billion euros with sales passing the 1 million unit mark for the first time since the company disposed of the Rover brand. The discontinuation of the Rover Automobiles segment improved the profit from ordinary activities by 755 million euros.
BMW did suffer slower unit sales growth in the last quarter of 2001 with sales in Germany for the whole year nearly flat. The fastest growth rate was seen in Great Britain with a 31.1% increase in sales. The Group sold 80,250 BMWs there, which was 17.4 % more than in the previous year. On top of that, 10,650 MINIs were sold in the first six months after the launch.
Panke said while he expected overall demand for cars to fall during 200, BMW itself saw an 18% growth in sales during the first 2 months.
There will be an expanded model range with 20 new models being introduced over the next six years including a competitor to Volkswagen AG’s Golf, called the 1- Series, and a rival to DaimlerChrysler AG’s Mercedes-Benz SL model, called the 6-Series.
