Luxury car maker targets Middle East growth

LUXURY TARGET: Aston Martin is looking to the Middle East to help it grow its sales.

British luxury car maker Aston Martin is targeting the Middle East in a bid to offset the economic downturn in the UK and United States.

The company, which is part owned by two Kuwaiti funds following its sale by Ford last year, said the 7,000 vehicles expected to be produced this year could be sold, but it would have to "work harder" than previous years.

"We've seen in various markets a hesitation to invest or to buy cars, but in other markets we see growth ... we can cope," chief executive Ulrich Bez said.

"For the past eight years we have been developing in Great Britain, Europe, America ... now we must develop in Asia/Pacific and the Middle East," he added.

"The Middle East has a faster growing GDP than anywhere else, and the population is growing faster than anywhere else - we need to add this," he said.

The firm, which has dealerships in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, currently sells around 300 cars a year in the region.

Aston Martin has launched some of the most famous sports cars in the world, and is a favourite brand of fictional British secret agent James Bond.

It was bought last year by a consortium including Formula 1 specialist David Richards and two Kuwaiti funds for about $940 million. (Reuters)

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