Lamborghini to build on last year's success

Italian car maker Lamborghini sees a 5 percent increase in global sales this year following record sales in 2007, Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann said.

Lamborghini, a unit of Volkswagen AG's Audi AG, sold a record 2,406 of its hand-made vehicles in 2007, up 15 percent from 2006, the company said.

Lamborghini's CEO offered the sales projection at an interview on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show, where it showed off examples of its new personalization program, called Ad Personam, that allows customers to design their own variations of its cars.

Winkelmann said that he also expects the automaker to have higher profits in 2008 compared to last year.

Lamborghini has yet to release its full-year 2007 financial results but Winkelmann said the company was profitable last year.

Winkelmann said he has seen no sign that the slump in the US economy was hurting demand for Lamborghini, which competes with the likes of Ferrari in speed and exclusivity.

Even if an economic recession in the US market began to hurt demand for luxury goods, Lamborghini would be shielded by its 12-month backlog of customer orders, Winkelmann said.

The United States accounts for about 40 percent of the brand's sales. California represents over a quarter of those sales.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/16/2008 page16)