Lotus report a net loss of £167.8m , in 2013 and also breached it’s banking covenants . Proton is planning to refinance the Lotus debt , but until that is done 'there is material uncertainty …significant doubt to operate as a going concern . Lotus Cars will focus on maximising it’s sales of it’s CURRENT Evora, Exige, and Elise offerings. Last year the company laid of 201 staff, and burned through £2.6mof it’s cash reserves , leaving it with £15m. Creditor days stretched to 155 days !!!
Lotus must sell 3,500 cars a year to break even, but to March 2013 it only sold 1,177 !! WHOOPS !!
Same old same old. The year to March 2013 means most of 2012 particularly the period when DRB stepped in and everything stopped, plus Danny Barhar got the boot.
Perhaps if the doom mongers stopped bleating and put their faith in the product instead the picture would be far rosier. Since march 2013 there has been re-financing, recruitment, and a long term commitment from DRB.
If the British press keep pedalling the $hit, then Lotus will die. Hopefully the new/growing markets for Lotus don’t subscribe to Autocar etc.
I’m with Tim. I think we all know that accounts can be made to look rosy or bleak with some creative accounting. Add into this the Dan Bahar issue, V6 development and slow delivery, Elise face lift and engine change over, etc.
Does it mention anything about Lotus engineering being busy or their cash input?
Figures to March 2013 are now almost a year old. I’m sure the period to March 2014 will show an improvement. Not the target numbers, but progress in the right direction.
The money and management now in place comes from DRB not Proton.
The price of new cars (however excellent they may be) are too high for the markets in which they are pitched. Until that aspect is addressed, it will be a continuing downward spiral into obllivium…As Podger points out, paying Creditors 155 days late is totally unacceptable, so very careful, cast iron guaranteed negotiation with them will be a prerequisite for future survival.
Maybe they should adopt Porsche pricing with an artificial base price that nobody specs, up to a decent spec at current prices. Fair point on the payment of creditors though.
It does seem like a bit of a weird article to me, slow news day?
I agree with Rob that 155 days late on payments isn’t on, but the previous year was 154 days late, so nothing really new there.
Lotus have historically always been 3 days from closure for as long as I have been involved with them, to me it seems like an unusual time to put out a negative piece. A little digging would show better UK registrations this year than last, at least from the last set of figures I was shown.
I don’t know if the global market sees the prices as being too high, I suspect Lotus charge what they think the market will pay. When I was at the factory last year I was told by the tour guide that production was running more or less at full capacity and that every car that came off the line was already sold, with eight out of ten cars going abroad. I suspect that until those markets are pretty much saturated there wouldn’t be a need to review their price structure. Yes they could reduce the cost and they would probably sell more cars in the UK, but why would they do that if they can already sell everything that they can produce.
and also breached it’s banking covenants . Proton is planning to refinance the Lotus debt , but until that is done 'there is material uncertainty …significant doubt to operate as a going concern . Lotus Cars will focus on maximising it’s sales of it’s CURRENT Evora, Exige, and Elise offerings. Last year the company laid of 201 staff, and burned through £2.6mof it’s cash reserves , leaving it with £15m. Creditor days stretched to 155 days !!!