Ferrari’s range today is larger than ever, with the Maranello plant making no less than five six: the California, 458 Italia, 458 Spider, F12 Berlinetta, FF and soon, the range-topping LaFerrari.
The Italian carmaker sold 7,318 cars last year, a record for the company and 50 percent more than in 1991, when Luca di Montezemolo became Ferrari CEO. However, there’s a thin balance between sales and exclusiveness, and Ferrari’s boss certainly knows it.
“My focus this year and in the years to come is not to grow volume but to increase the exclusivity of Ferrari. This protects our margins and residual values for our customers,” di Montezemolo said in an interview with Automotive News Europe.
Montezemolo explained that Ferrari’s finances could continue to improve even if unit sales are static, provided that profit margins are increased. He said Ferrari aims for a profit margin of around 15 percent this year, following 14.4 percent last year and 14.1 percent in 2011.
Making Ferrari cars more exclusive is a way to reach this target, but how is that possible for a brand that already is a benchmark for exclusiveness? Di Montezemolo has the answer: “On average, a customer adds options worth 25,000 euros, which is 10 percent of the retail price. Another way to personalize a Ferrari is our Tailor-Made program, which adds 50,000 euros on average. This results in more personalized, more unique cars that keep a higher residual value over time.”
If that’s not exclusive enough for some customers, Ferrari also offers its Special Projects program. Montezemolo said the SP division made “about” 10 cars so far, although only four were made public, with Eric Clapton’s SP12 EC, John Walson’s P540 Superfast Aperta and Peter Kalikow’s 45 Superamerica being three of these one-off models. “Some collectors do not want to make their one-offs public,” Montezemolo explained the secrecy surrounding these unique cars.
By Dan Mihalascu
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