Bentley’s half-year sales top €1.3bn as profits surge to highest in its history

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Bentley Motors’ revenue accelerated to over €1.3bn during the first half of its financial year while the automotive giant’s operating profit surged to greater than its total for any full year.

The Crewe-headquartered company, which is part of the Volkswagen Group, has also confirmed its retail sales increased by 50% from a pre-Covid 2019 figure of 4,785 to 7,199 in 2021.

Bentley’s revenue shot up to €1.32bn for the six-month period, compared to the €860m is reported for the same time in 2020.

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Its operating profit also surged to €178m compared to a loss of €99m in the first half of last year.

In a statement, the company said its half-year performance was better than any previous period in its 102-year history.

Bentley’s previous record half-year performance was in 2014, with a revenue of €887m and an operating result of €95.2m.

That 12 months closed as Bentley’s most successful year with a profit of €170m, already exceeded at the half-year point 2021.

Bentley’s Bentayga sales totalled 2,767, while 2,318 Continental GT and 2,063 Flying Spur models were sold.

However, the business added that the positive results “are against a backdrop of continued uncertainty which could negatively impact the second half of the year”.

The increasing Covid-19 numbers in many parts of the world “could threaten future production in the worst-case, or see further retail restrictions posing both a sales and financial risk to forecasts”, it warned.

Chairman and CEO Adrian Hallmark said: “These results are an important milestone on our mission Beyond100, namely to become the leading sustainable luxury mobility company by 2030.

“They are the outcome of favourable market conditions, combined with three years of hard work within Bentley, where we have reinvented our products, restructured our operations, managed three crises, and defined our 2030 strategy.

“We have worked relentlessly to transform our entire organisation through productivity improvements and cost efficiencies, and the double-digit return on sales is validation that we are on the right path to enable a sustainable business model.

“While we celebrate these results, we are not taking the full year outlook for granted as we know there are still sizable risks to the year-end, notably the increasing number of colleagues having Covid enforced self-isolation periods.

“That notwithstanding, our financial strength is a positive sign and as we continue on our biggest transformation and investment programme in history, Beyond100, fully electrifying our entire model range within a decade, we continue on track with our aim to become the world’s benchmark luxury car business, financially resilient and recession-proof.”

During the period China was Bentley’s biggest selling market for the first time in nearly a decade, with 2,155 cars sold.

The Americas, with 2,049, followed closely behind with Europe also performing strongly, delivering 1,142 cars.