Chapter 742: The Rising Automobile Company

After giving George Berkeley his instructions, Xia Yu and Elena set off together for the Rolls-Royce Motor Company.

In the car, Xia Yu asked Elena about the situation at the Rolls-Royce Motor Company.

Compared to George Berkeley, Elena, the representative of the two shareholders of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, is more familiar with the operations of the company.

'Elena, how is the business of the car company?'

Elena smiles like a peach blossom, gently brushes her hair back, and says softly, 'The company is doing very well. Once the new generation of the Phantom and the Continental were launched, they became popular throughout the UK and quickly spread throughout Europe. Now the company is the focus of the entire European automotive industry.'

'Even Jaguar, the best-selling car company, has been impacted by us. Its stock price has fallen quite a bit. My father told me that Sir William Lyons, who has retired, is very anxious.'

'All major car companies are studying our 4S model. In this regard, we are the standard-setter.'

'According to yesterday's statistics, starting from January 1, the new Rolls-Royce Phantom sold 522 units, achieving sales of 87.6 million pounds, ranking second in the UK automotive industry in terms of sales of a single model.'

'The Bentley Continental sold 1,520 units and achieved sales of £98.8 million, ranking first in the UK automotive sector in terms of sales of a single model.

'In addition to these two models, other models sold a total of 109 units, with sales of £14.2 million, so the company has now sold a cumulative total of 2,151 vehicles and sales have exceeded £200 million!

'And our company has achieved last month's sales champion!'

Elena paused for a moment and then said to Xia Yu, 'Xia Yu, according to the company's analysis, if we participate in the Geneva Motor Show next month, monthly sales are likely to exceed 10,000 units. With the company's current annual production capacity of 200,000 units, it may not be enough in the next two years. Therefore, Rudolf Bruck proposed yesterday that we build two more production lines.'

Xia Yu nodded with a smile, 'It's time to expand the production line in advance. I'll tell him to build the production line according to the standard of an annual output of 500,000 units!'

If the annual production volume can really reach 500,000 vehicles, then Rolls-Royce Motor Cars will be able to squeeze into the second tier of the world, catching up with the world-class car companies with an annual production volume of more than one million vehicles.

For now, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars still has a long way to go, but with the current momentum of development, as long as they don't make any mistakes along the way, the future is promising!

...

While chatting and laughing, the car drove up to the bottom floor of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and Xia Yu and Elena went upstairs to meet Rudolf Bruck.

'Good morning, boss!'

'Good morning, Elena!'

Rudolf Bruck greeted Xia Yu respectfully.

At this moment, his face was flushed with a confident look on the surface, obviously the good situation of the company during this period of time has made him full of enthusiasm for his work.

'Rudolf, it's been a long time, you've worked hard during this period of time!'

Xia Yu greeted him kindly, making Rudolf Bruck feel happy.

'No, it's not hard work, it's my job!'

'Boss, are we going to the factory now?'

'Let's go and have a look!'

After saying this, Xia Yu and the others followed Rudolf Bruck to the car factory to see how it was operating.

After the inspection, Xia Yu was very satisfied and openly praised Rudolf Bruck.

One thing that impressed Xia Yu was the enthusiasm of the workers and their great respect for him. They spoke of the factory as if it were their own, and it was clear that they had a strong sense of belonging and pride in the company.

Xia Yu was most satisfied with this. Then halfway through the conversation they got to talking about their wages, and basically no worker would complain about a low wage.

In summary, the money was paid on time, and the workers were very proud and satisfied, and they were happy doing their work.

With such a mental outlook, employees naturally can devote themselves fully to creating more value for the company.

Therefore, Xia Yu is very satisfied with Rudolf Bruck's management and has not put his trust in the wrong person.

After the inspection, Xia Yu and the others came to the factory's management office to rest.

After drinking some tea, Xia Yu asked Rudolf Bruck about the task he had previously assigned: 'Rudolf, what is the current situation regarding the matter I asked you to investigate earlier?'

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is in a very good situation at the moment, having sold more than 2,000 vehicles in just over a month.

But Xia Yu has not forgotten the original situation of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. As a top luxury car company, the previous peak production capacity of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was only 2,000 vehicles per year, and the annual production peak of Bentley was just barely 5,000 vehicles.

Moreover, in the previous years, the situation was not good, and the car production line was mostly idle.

Although Xia Yu had prepared in advance to expand the production line and increase the production capacity to 200,000 units, manufacturing cars is not a game. It is not enough to have a production line; there must also be an adequate supply of spare parts.

A car is made up of about 10,000 non-detachable parts, and if it is an F1 racing car, there can be as many as 20,000 parts.

Under these circumstances, expanding production capacity is not a simple matter, and it is completely connected.

Moreover, the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Bentley Continental were only released a month ago, and their influence is still growing explosively. With over 2,000 units sold in just over a month, they are likely to sell 5,000 or even 10,000 units worldwide in a month as long as they maintain their advantage!

Especially in March next month, the Geneva International Motor Show will be held, and car dealers from all over the world will gather in Geneva. At present, major media outlets are already certain that the new Rolls-Royce Phantom and Bentley Continental will be the two brightest stars at the motor show.

Without guessing, we know that the new Rolls-Royce Phantom and Bentley Continental will set off on a path of global popularity.

In this case, just the Bentley Continental alone, its annual sales volume is not comparable to BMW, even if it is equivalent to one-tenth, it will have more than 50,000 units. Now Bentley Continental only sells more than 1,000 units a month, which is not even close!

In its previous life, Toyota built the luxury car brand Lexus, and sold nearly 20,000 units in the first year, even when Lexus was still unknown.

Now, the Bentley Continental is backed by the popularity of Bentley's ultra-luxury cars, but it sells at the price of a luxury car. Its starting point is much higher than Toyota's Lexus!

In order to cope with the parts supply chain in the event of future sales explosions, and even to prevent competitors from using underhanded tactics, the best way to plan for the long term is to take a stake in or even acquire auto parts companies.

This is also the only way for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to become a world-class automotive giant.

Which of the world's major car companies does not have a strong auto parts supply chain?

Volkswagen and BMW in Germany have the support of auto parts suppliers such as Bosch, Continental, ZF, ThyssenKrupp, Mahle and BASF.

Toyota, Honda and Nissan in the island country have the support of auto parts suppliers such as Aisin Seiki, Denso, Yazaki, Panasonic Automotive Systems and Sumitomo Electric.

In the United States, there is no need to mention General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. Detroit has the world's most complete auto parts supply chain.

The only major British car companies are the independent brands, which are famous but have almost all declined. They are only sold domestically, with pitiful sales. The companies in the industry chain are not doing well, and the auto parts supply chain has gradually been swallowed up by German parts manufacturers. There are very few left that still have autonomy.

Although the UK's automotive manufacturing level is still world-class, if you look at the car factories located all over the UK, most of them are branches of car companies from other countries, mainly for the UK's engine technology and system technology research resources.

Just like now, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has to source many of its parts from companies such as Bosch and BMW.

This situation is absolutely unacceptable, and an independent and autonomous parts supply chain is essential!

Therefore, Xia Yu assigned Rudolf Bruck to do this task early.

Rudolf Bruck's face became serious, and without saying a word, he put down his cup and took a document out of his bag and handed it to Xia Yu, while reporting to Xia Yu, 'Boss, I have already investigated and found several acquisition targets.'

'Almost all of the auto parts companies in West Germany are family-owned and not listed, and they are backed by a consortium. It is very difficult for us to acquire them, and even if we want to take a stake, it is very difficult.'

'Another consideration is cost and efficiency, so for the first batch, I have chosen two companies located in the UK and one in Canada.'