Ferrari production to increase under Marchionne

Sun, 14 Sep 2014

The head of any company has to juggle the relationship between supply and demand. Of course, that applies to automakers too, even ones as high-end as Ferrari. And as with many other decisions, the way Ferrari has addressed supply and demand has come down principally to the principal.

Enzo Ferrari may have only wanted to sell as many vehicles as he needed in order to fund his company's racing department, but with the F40 – the last model made under his watch – Ferrari ended up increasing supply to meet growing demand. However, after Luca di Montezemolo took over in the wake of Enzo's passing, he started constricting supply. He figured Ferrari could sell 400 units of the F50, for example, so he built 399. More recently, Montezemolo undertook a course of action that spread Ferrari into more markets, while simultaneously constricting supply to increase demand and thereby profitability.

It's been a winning formula for Ferrari. Just days ago, the company announced record earnings up by 14.5 percent in the first half of 2014 over the same period last year, which itself had seen a 7.1-percent increase over the year before. Clearly the strategy has worked, but Montezemolo's successor is already eying a different approach.

According to Bloomberg and others, Fiat-Chrysler chief and incoming Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne intends to increase supply to meet growing demand. Where Montezemolo restricted production to 7,000 units per year, Marchionne is eying 10,000. That's in part because the Italian-Canadian auto magnate believes that Ferrari's expansion into new markets means that there's little risk of oversaturation. In particular, Marchionne sees the F12 Berlinetta (inset photo) as a growth model, and intends to ramp up production to shorten the waiting list and keep supply moving apace.

It's the first big change we're seeing Marchionne enacting as he takes over and ushers in a new era at Maranello. We'll be watching to see what other changes he has in store for the Prancing Horse marque. In the meantime, you can read the full details of Ferrari's financial performance in the press release below.

Ferrari Board of Directors: a record first six months

USA remains largest market worldwide and records 13% growth. Celebrations of Ferrari's 60th year in America planned in October with both a special event and a special car

Maranello, 11th September – The Ferrari S.p.A. Board of Directors met today under the chairmanship of Luca di Montezemolo to examine the financial results for the first half of 2014.

The figures show growth in all indicators despite the planned reduction in car deliveries.

On June 30th, Ferrari recorded revenues of 1,348.6 million euro (+14.5%) and trading profit reached 185 million euro (+5.2%), both H1 figures completely unprecedented in Ferrari history.

Net income increased by almost 10% to 127.6 million euro too.

The company also set another new record for its net industrial financial position which stood at 1,594 million euro at the end of June even though product investment remains high, while net cash flow for the first half of the year amounted to 236 million euro.

A total of 3,631 homologated cars were delivered, 3.6% fewer than in the same period in 2013.
Significantly, any comparison with H1 2013 must also take into account the fact that the Ferrari California went out of production with deliveries of the new California T beginning only in summer. Added to this was the strategic decision to cut production taken in May 2013. However, an increase of 5% in deliveries is planned by the end of the year.

In Europe, Great Britain remains our largest market with a total of 408 cars delivered, 7 fewer than in the first half of 2013. Notably, as with the first quarter of 2014, deliveries to Italy rose after years of falling: +13% with 131 dispatched to their owners. However, the domestic market remains marginal accounting for only a little over 3% of total volumes.

In the Far East, Ferrari recorded double-figure growth in Japan (+13%, 195 cars) while Australia was up by 7.7% with 56 delivered. Greater China, however, is feeling the impact of the controlled reduction in deliveries to Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China to which a total of 285 cars went compared to 344 in H1 2013.

Results in the USA were excellent too with very brisk growth: 1,062 cars, +13%. 2014 is also a special year there as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the sale of the first Ferrari in the country.

"It gives all of us here at Ferrari a sense of great satisfaction to continue to achieve record financial results, particularly given that production was limited. I am sure that in a few months' time, we will be marking the end of a truly extraordinary and unprecedented year. Sales will also increase by several percentage points to avoid excessively long waiting lists," declared Luca di Montezemolo, adding: "To celebrate Ferrari's 60th year in the USA, we have developed a special car of which just 10 examples will be built, in addition to planning a major event in Los Angeles to bring together all our American clients and collectors, and a charity initiative."

The figures from the company's Brand activities (licensing, retail, e-commerce) remain positive too. In the retail sector, we are rapidly implementing our new strategy of taking over the direct management of the Ferrari Stores in some of the world's leading cities. This soundness of this decision has already been confirmed by an increase of 7% in revenues in the directly-managed Stores in the first six months of the year, with the Ferrari Store in Maranello faring best with a figure of over 14%.

On the licencing front, H1 2014 also brought the signing of agreements to commence the building next year of Ferrari Land, a theme park just outside Barcelona, and the launch of our first Oakley sunglasses collection.

Online activities are also faring very well indeed: the Ferrari Facebook page has now broken the 15-million fan barrier and we also launched the site dedicated to the Scuderia in China. The social network channels continued to provide an exceptional insight into the world of Ferrari in the first six months of 2014 too with just under 900,000 people following us on Twitter.

Revenues: 1,348.6 million euro (+14.5%)
Trading profit: 185 million euro (+5.2%)
Net profits: 127.6 million euro (+9.8%)
Record net industrial financial position: 1,594 million euro – an unprecedented result
Homologated cars delivered: 3,631 (- 3.6%) but 2014 will close with deliveries +5%

By Noah Joseph