Another strong year looms for Audi after record 1st quarter

MANILA, Philippines—The Audi Group is again on track for success in the new fiscal year.

With over 412,000 deliveries of the Audi brand, the company has enjoyed its best first quarter ever. In the first three months of the current fiscal year, the Ingolstadt carmaker generated revenue of 12,951 million euros and an operating profit of 1,314 million euros. The operating return on sales reached 10.1 percent.

Audi made clear progress in all regions worldwide in the first quarter of 2014. The carmaker from Ingolstadt increased deliveries of the Audi brand by 11.7 percent to 412,846 (2013: 369,494) units. This led to an increase in revenue to 12,951 (2013: 11,734) million euros for the Audi Group—a rise of 10.4 percent. The operating profit for the Audi Group reached 1,314 (2013: 1,307) million euros.

“Despite high up-front spending on new products and technologies, and the expansion of our international production network, we have generated an operating profit of 1,314 million euros in the first quarter,” said Axel Strotbek, member of the board of management of Audi AG for finance and organization. He said that the operating return on sales of 10.1 (2013: 11.1) percent is again just above the strategic target corridor of 8 to 10 percent, supplying further evidence of the company’s high profitability.

The Audi Group achieved a profit before tax of 1,398 (2013: 1,432) million euros.

In preparation for further growth, Audi intends to take on around 2,000 experts this year in Germany alone. The new employees will be recruited mainly for the lightweight construction, connectivity and electric mobility fields of expertise, or will be involved in the expansion of the international production network. In addition, the company will be offering apprenticeships to around 750 young people in 2014.

Audi is moreover planning for growth in 2014 as a whole. The brand with the four rings will be introducing 17 new models and derivative versions into the market this year: The S3 Sedan and the A3 Cabriolet are already in the showrooms. The new Audi A3 Sportback g-tron and the fuel Audi e-gas mean customers can already drive in a largely carbon dioxide-neutral way.

At the Geneva Motor Show in early March, the company also gave the S1 and S1 Sportback models their first public showing. In addition, the third generation of the sporty design icon Audi TT enjoyed its world premiere in Geneva.

The Audi TT will provide an extra boost to growth in the current fiscal year.