After going broke for so long, Lotus Cars CEO Jean-Marc Gales says his company will be back in the black by March 2017, when FY 2016 ends.
To do this, Gales implemented cost-cutting measures while improving the current lineup to help increase sales and profits, Automotive News Europe reports. In the short term, this meant making some changes to the automaker’s offerings, such as adding an automatic transmission to the Exige, and refocusing the facelifted U.S.-bound Evora to better compete against the Porsche 911 and Audi R8. Gales said the U.S. would be the Evora’s biggest market as it leads the charge back to these shores after federal crash standards kept the model out for 2015.
At home in Hethel, England, 260 were cut from the workforce of 1,250, less than the 325 Gales had planned to cut in September 2014. The CEO also cut back consulting and engineering work conducted by Lotus Engineering, focusing the engineering arm on developing the automaker’s lineup, as well as combing through the supply chain to replace larger suppliers with smaller ones.
On the sales front, 2,015 cars left the showroom floor during FY 2014, an increase of 55 percent compared to the previous year’s 1,403; Gales is aiming for 3,500 sold by 2016. The increase is helped by an expansion of its dealerships, which stood at 174 at the end of March. He said his goal is to have 200 by the end of 2015.
As for profits, Gales said that losses were “massively reduced” compared to FY 2014’s £65.6 million ($100 million USD), and FY 2013’s £159.4 million ($242.2 million). He adds that he expects to see a profit for Lotus by the end of FY 2016, an experience the company hasn’t had “from the car side in over 20 years.”
[Photo credit: Vetatur Fumare/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0]
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