Rolls-Royce is going to make its factory bigger so it can give customers more options for customizing their cars. The new CEO, Chris Brownridge, says this is really important for Rolls-Royce and for the whole car industry in Britain.
Unlike most car companies that make their factories bigger to make more cars, Rolls-Royce wants to focus on making each car special for each customer. “We’re not trying to make more cars, we’re trying to make each car more special for our customers,” said the CEO.
Rolls-Royce has been through a lot of changes over the years, but one thing that has always stayed the same is its focus on making really fancy cars with lots of special touches.
The Bespoke department at Rolls-Royce is a big deal. Every car made in 2023 had something special about it. But the factory they have now can’t keep up with all the ideas customers have. For example, they can only paint 15% of the cars in two colors, but more than 50% of customers want that. Rolls-Royce doesn’t want customers to wait too long for their cars, so they promise not to make them wait more than 15 months.
They’re starting by upgrading the paint shop, and they hope to finish everything by 2029. In the past year, Rolls-Royce has made lots of unique cars based on their regular models, like the Cullinan and the Ghost. They’ve also made some one-of-a-kind cars, like the Droptail. One customer even had a special car made called the Boat Tail, which cost around $30 million.
Chris Brownridge is the new CEO, taking over from Torsten Müller-Ötvös, who did a great job running the company for 14 years. “Rolls-Royce had its most successful year last year, so it’s in great shape, but what we can also see is that the business has a very exciting future ahead of it,” said Brownridge. “My job is to make sure we keep doing great and keep making amazing cars for our customers.”
