ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS AT THE GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: REMARKS BY TORSTEN MÜLLER-ÖTVÖS

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Welcome to the House of Rolls-Royce here in Geneva! 

Each year we come to Geneva to update you about our business and to share with you some truly special examples of our wonderful products. 

And this year is no exception.

As the world’s pinnacle luxury brand, celebrating our 115th anniversary this year, we take great pride in these beautiful and precious items, lovingly handcrafted by the nearly 2000 people who work at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood.

This celebrated facility in West Sussex, is acknowledged as a global centre of luxury manufacturing excellence. It lies at the very heart of the Rolls-Royce success story.

Our Home is a very unique place – a creative oasis where we are constantly guided by the vision of our founding fathers, Charles Rolls and Henry Royce to “Strive for perfection in everything you do”. 

Since 2003 every Rolls-Royce in the world has been created here. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, at Rolls-Royce, our clients are our life-blood.

They are our heroes and our friends and we are obsessively focused on providing for their needs and desires. For them, being within the warm embrace of the Rolls-Royce family is an unbelievable experience, like no other. And they are deeply appreciative of our hyper-centric attention to the smallest of details. 

The Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood has become a must-visit destination for large numbers of our valued clients. 

They come from around the world to specify their Rolls-Royces and to meet our designers, engineers and bespoke craftspeople. 

Many return later to view their creation being built in our factory or to take delivery of their Rolls-Royce in our fully bespoke Customer Suite. 

So, from Goodwood to Geneva, this year, we have brought some of the best examples of products for you view and to enjoy. They are all truly lovely! 

We have our complete product offering on our stand today, led by the world’s most exclusive luxury product the Rolls-Royce Phantom, described by many of you in the media and by our customers as “the Best Car in the World”. 

Phantom is at the core of our company’s success. It is a global expression of ultimate achievement and I am pleased to report that more and more of our younger customers are experiencing our Phantom short-wheelbase as a self-driver’s car. 

Phantom is flanked by Ghost, now in its 10th year of production and still in strong demand around the world. Ghost is a global favourite amongst our powerful, entrepreneurial clients. 

Then, we have brought from Goodwood examples of our two highly contemporary, seductive coupe models.

Wraith - here in its Black Badge guise - is the ultimate powerful and agile Grand Tourer. Edgy and menacing, Wraith appeals to our young clients who are trendsetting, cosmopolitan citizens of the world. 

And then, Dawn, our truly beautiful sexy and seductive drophead coupe. Dawn is much loved by our more social, fun-loving customers who crave the sensual pleasure of open-air travel. 

Finally, to complete our product line-up we are joined this year by our hugely successful Rolls-Royce Cullinan, our first SUV. 

Cullinan was launched to great global acclaim last year and has received effusive headlines in the media and an enthusiastic welcome from our customers. 

I am delighted to tell you that our forward orders for Cullinan stretch into the fourth quarter of this year. 

We are in full production at our Goodwood factory and continue to make substantial investments, including the employment of an additional 200 associates, in order to meet this very pleasing customer demand. 

I can confidently say today that Rolls-Royce is set on a continuous and successful growth trajectory. 

And speaking of success, it is with great pride that I can tell you that 2018 was another exceptional year for Rolls-Royce. 

We set an historic business record, achieving our highest annual sales in our marque’s 115-year history. 

We delivered 4,107 cars to customers in over 50 countries around the world and in doing so achieved year-on-year sales growth in all regions. The Americas remained our largest market. 

But at Rolls-Royce it’s not all about volume. 

Our unique and successful business model focuses on preserving the rarity of our products, which is a key demand of our customers, while at the same time achieving record levels of profitability. 

This, we believe, is the real hallmark of how a true luxury brand should be managed. 

In this regard I am happy to report that the Rolls-Royce business generates pleasing profits and we continue to contribute to the bottom line of our shareholder, the BMW Group. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, please take a close look at and enjoy all the fine Rolls-Royces on our stand. Each one contains unique and beautiful examples of our world-renowned Bespoke offerings. 

No other manufacturer of luxury goods can equal customer personalisation to this level. 

Indeed, today more than ever, it is globally recognised that “Bespoke IS Rolls-Royce”. 

To more fully understand our Bespoke offering, please do take a particularly close look at this beautiful Phantom Tranquillity. 

Created for those who conceive and achieve the impossible, Tranquillity is an expression of Phantom’s standing as the rarest and most desired object in the luxury world.

The Tranquillity Collection is strictly limited to just 25 examples worldwide and I am pleased to tell you that they have already all been purchased by discerning Rolls-Royce collectors.

Look into the car and see the tasteful integration of wafer thin shavings of the Muonionalusta meteor that fell to earth in Sweden over a hundred years ago. 

And enjoy the highly reflective stainless steel, 24 carat gold plating and space grade aluminium elements in the car. 

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the contemporary Rolls-Royce of today - a 115 year old brand, completely relevant in the present and moving purposefully into the future. A vibrant, successful and sustainable business, providing the most discerning people in the world with the rarest and very best luxury products and service on Earth. 

As for the future: well, as you can imagine, we are not standing still! 

We are imagineering and already engineering an exciting future for Rolls-Royce. A future that will be fully electric, digital and technologically innovative while never overlooking our commitment to the custodianship of the great Rolls-Royce brand. 

This is what our customers and the world expects of us and rest assured, this is what we will deliver. 

But for now, thank you for listening and I invite you to join me and my colleagues on the stand for a closer look at our lovely cars.

Thank you.