Porsche increased first quarter worldwide unit sales 29% year on year to 30,231 vehicles while revenue rose 32% to EUR3bn (US$3.9bn).
Operating profit reached EUR528m, 18% more than in the first quarter of 2011, and 725 new employees were hired in the same period, taking the total worldwide labour force to 16,032 employees at the end of March.
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“Behind these extremely gratifying figures is a clearly defined line: we focus systematically on solid, sustainable and high-quality growth,” said president and CEO Matthias Muller.
“The youngest and most efficient model range of all time gives us an outstanding platform on which to sustain this course throughout 2012.”
Sales of the redesigned 911 increased 38% in its first full quarter, compared with sales of the predecessor model a year earlier. Porsche said it had booked “strong” orders for the redesigned Boxster, launched at the Geneva show in March, along with new Cayenne and Panamera GTS models.
This year, Porsche will launch nine more models inlcuding new versions of the 911 and the Cayenne GTS.
Q1 results benefited from increased demand in China, Germany and the US, the automaker noted.
Panamera unit sales rose 58% with strong growth of the V6 version. Cayenne sales rose 29%.
“We are extremely satisfied with the first quarter 2012 results. We will keep this momentum going – exactly in line with our growth strategy,” said CFO Lutz Meschke. “We can fund both the significant increase in investment and the development expenditure for expanding our model range out of our strong cash flow.
“And both of those things with a return on sales of 17.5%, which is significantly in excess of our strategic target value of a minimum of 15%.”
Porsche built 36,067 vehicles in the first quarter, up 15%.
At Leipzig, where the Cayenne and Panamera are produced, the automaker has expanded output to 450 units a day since a third shift was introduced last January.
