Job losses are expected to save Aston Martin £25 million as it struggles with supply chain disruptions, inefficiencies, and weak Chinese demand.
Aston Martin is to trim staff numbers after recording another yearly loss, the British luxury car maker announced on Wednesday.
A total of 170 jobs are to go, representing 5% of its global workforce.
Aston Martin’s operating loss came to £99.5 million (€119.9m) in 2024, a slight improvement on the previous year’s total of £111.2m (€134m).
During the final three months of 2024, the operating loss came in at £33.3m (€40.1m), marginally better than the £34.1m (€41.1m) total seen a year earlier.
Aston’s Martin’s full-year pre-tax loss, meanwhile, was recorded at £289.1m (€348.4m), down 21% compared with 2023.
“We are commencing a process to make organisational adjustments, to ensure the business is appropriately resourced for its future plans”, Aston Martin said in an earnings statement on Wednesday.
“Linked directly to this difficult but necessary action, we expect annualised operating expenditure savings of circa £25m.”
Around 50% of that total will be realised this year, the firm added.
Making Aston Martin more efficient is one of the driving aims of owner Lawrence Stroll, a billionaire businessman who bought the firm 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 timeline of product launches, as overambitious targets lead to “significant unnecessary costs” and customer disappointment.
The firm is focusing on the release of the Valhalla hybrid model for 2025, with deliveries starting in the second half of the year.
Aston Martin’s first fully electric model is planned “for the latter part of this decade” – a launch that had already been postponed to 2026 last year.
Delivery obstacles
Although Aston Martin saw an 8% annual jump in wholesale volumes in the final quarter of 2024, the total was down for the full-year period.
The company delivered 6,030 cars in 2024, down from 6,620 in 2023.
“Supply chain disruptions” and a “weaker macroeconomic environment in China” were to blame, said the car maker.
It attributed an end-of-year sales boost, on the other hand, to its new core product range.
Looking to the year ahead, Aston Martin aims to see adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) in the green, along with positive free cash flow in the second half of 2025.
One obstacle to this could be potential trade tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump, which could affect British car exports to the 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.”
