Bentley’s sun rising in the east on soaring Chinese sales

Luxury carmaker Bentley has reported soaring sales for 2011, with a near-doubling of business in China.

The company, based at Crewe in Cheshire but owned by German giant Volkswagen since the late 1990s, sold 7,003 cars last year, with December proving Bentley’s second-best month ever.

It said the UK had proved “extremely challenging over the past months” but that sales, at 1,031 for 2011, were still some 5 per cent up on 2010.

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America was the firm’s biggest market last year, accounting for 2,011 of the total cars sold – a figure 32 per cent higher than in 2010.

Sales in China almost doubled to 1,839, pushing the country up into second spot for Bentley sales worldwide.

Global sales in December 2011 reached 1,059 – up 69 per cent on a year earlier.

Chairman and chief executive Wolfgang Durheimer said: “It has been a tremendously good year for Bentley. The dramatic sales growth reflects a global strength to the brand.”

The figures – the strongest since Bentley’s record year of 2007 – emerged as BMW said it expected the global luxury car market to grow more than twice as fast as the overall market this year.

In an interview with a German newspaper, the firm’s finance chief, Friedrich Eichiner, said: “Around the world, we see market growth of 4 per cent and more than 8 per cent in the premium market.”

He added that the European market was likely to remain flat this year, while the US and China offered growth opportunities.

Eichiner also said that BMW would cope with economic headwinds by having workers take time off in lieu of overtime.

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