The job cuts will save Aston Martin £25 million as the company struggles with supply chain disruptions, inefficiencies and weak demand in China, Euronews reports.
British luxury car maker Aston Martin announced the job cuts on Wednesday after recording another annual loss. A total of 170 jobs will be cut, representing 5 per cent of the total workforce.
Aston Martin’s operating loss for 2024 was £99.5m, slightly better than the previous year’s £111.2m. For the final three months of 2024, the operating loss was £33.3m, slightly better than £34.1m a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Aston’s Martin’s pre-tax loss for the full year was £289.1m, down 21 per cent on 2023.
Aston Martin said in an earnings statement on Wednesday:
“We are commencing a process to make organisational adjustments, to ensure the business is appropriately resourced for its future plans. Linked directly to this difficult but necessary action, we expect annualised operating expenditure savings of circa £25m.”
Around 50 per cent of that amount will be realised this year, the company added.
Improving efficiency at Aston Martin is one of the main goals of owner Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire businessman who bought the company in 2020.
“Instilling better rigour and discipline in the planning and execution of our product launch cycles, collaboration with our supply partners throughout the process to drive efficiencies, and always putting the customer at the centre of what we do, is what we must focus on,” Aston Martin said in its earnings statement.
The company added that it needed to be more realistic about the timing of product launches as inflated targets lead to “significant unnecessary costs” and customer frustration.
The company is focusing on launching the Valhalla hybrid model by 2025, with deliveries to begin in the second half of the year. Aston Martin’s first all-electric model is scheduled for “the second half of this decade” – last year’s launch had already been pushed back to 2026.
Obstacles to delivery
Although Aston Martin increased wholesale sales by 8 per cent year-on-year in the final quarter of 2024, the full year figure was down. The company delivered 6,030 cars in 2024, down from 6,620 in 2023.
The carmaker said “supply chain disruptions” and “weaker macroeconomic conditions in China” were to blame. On the other hand, the year-end sales growth was attributed to a new core product line-up.
Looking ahead to next year, Aston Martin is aiming for adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) to be green and free cash flow to become positive in the second half of 2025.
One obstacle to this could be potential trade tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, which could affect British car exports to that country.
“After a period of intense product launches, coupled with industry-wide and Company challenges, our focus now shifts to operational execution and delivering financial sustainability,” Aston Martin CEO Adrian Hallmark said on Wednesday.
He added: “I see great potential in Aston Martin, and our goal is to transition from a high-potential business to a high-performing one, better equipped to navigate future opportunities and uncertainties.”
