High roller

"I was in St Petersburg a few weeks ago, sitting in Lenin's Silver Ghost and just thinking to myself ‘how did this come about?!" If one could choose the participants in the ideal dinner party, Ian Robertson, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars' Chairman and CEO would figure pretty high on the list. The forty-something Englishman has a fund of anecdotes and stories of the people he has met along his travels and the things he has done during his 28 years in the automotive industry.

Appointed to the helm of Rolls-Royce in February 2005, Robertson has overseen the ongoing ‘relaunch' of the brand. "When I arrived here we were effectively in the launch of the new company. It had been going for just over a year by then," he explains. "So the [Phantom] Drophead is the second car since I've been here. We are now en route to delivering the small car which will come before the end of the decade, which is not that far away now! We're also about to double the size of the company in terms of putting second shifts on and building second lines, so we've gone from the new chapter of the new company into being a fully-fledged business with a very expansive future."

The future for the company certainly looks brighter than it did toward the end of the last century. The group was passed from parent company to parent company before, in 1998, Rolls-Royce and Bentley parted company, with BMW assuming control of the former. The company developed a new Greenfield headquarter site and factory and relaunched itself as a new incarnation based on the brand's illustrious history, confounding critics who claimed that the brand would fall by the wayside. "In the last two decades of last century there was a risk that that's what was happening as underinvestment came in and Rolls-Royce and Bentley both became badge-engineered," Robertson admits. "But the beauty of the last few years is that the companies split and we've both taken a different strategy - we were extremely clear in our mind that we had to position our car right at the top of the market and have the position to back it up."

Robertson is understandably very excited by the launch of Phantom's Drophead Coupe, aimed at a wider market than some of the company's previous models: "It is a far less formal car than the Phantom, so in that way it often attracts a new buyer. There's definitely a younger crowd and there's also a female element that we haven't seen in Phantom. There is also a geographical side in that maybe we will see this car where we haven't seen the Phantom before."

Far less formal it may be but the model comes with all the workmanship and added extras that make a Rolls-Royce what it is, all of which is reflected in the cost - the base price for the car begins at just under half a million dollars. Robertson, however, does not see this as an obstacle to global sales. "It enables an awful lot of bespoke contents, so from the customers point of view they can personalise their car," he explains. "And I think we're on the rise of that sector around the world as well. The super luxury car segment is being driven by product, it's not being driven by a lack of customers. There are more customers out there than ever there are cars, we're entering the market at a very good time." Something reflected in the way that sales have grown approximately six-fold over the last six years.

"You not only have a very unique design, which for me, I would say this I know, is one of the most beautiful designs in the car world that has ever been seen," Robertson continues, "but behind that is a great substance as well. The car delivers on everyone's possible expectations."

And those expectations run pretty high. The brand name has become synonymous with both a certain lifestyle and as a benchmark of excellence. "I get press cuttings every day, and half of them have nothing to do with Rolls-Royce the car company, they are being used as an adjective to describe ‘best'," Robertson says. "Whether it be the Rolls-Royce of hotels, or it be the Rolls-Royce of mineral waters or the Rolls-Royce of fountain pens, so I think it is seen as a pinnacle product. Therefore in substance and pricing it is right at the top and therefore it has a scarcity value as well."

Ever since Frederick Henry Royce built his first car in 1903 the mark's reputation has meant that it has stood as a mark of success, one of the ultimate status symbols. Robertson feels that this lineage, and the guarantee that it offers, is what powers the company's appeal today: "I think that brands have long histories by and large, and there are very few that haven't that are successful and they tend to be in service industries. Truly great brands have great history and Rolls-Royce has one of the longest - and one of the greatest that the world has ever seen. It's really made up of many stories over tens of decades, and that is the myth that turns into the brand. When you look at what a brand stands for it is a promise. Our promise is that this car will not only fit all the visible, tangible elements that you're looking for but will have the substance behind it to fulfil that."

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