When the deal finally goes through, the last bits of paper are signed and Investment Dar is well and truly in control of Aston Martin, the Kuwaiti executives may be in for something of a surprise. The man running the show on the ground, Dr Ulrich Bez, is no ordinary chief executive. While Investment Dar has built its reputation on conservative growth, and carefully considered deals, Dr Bez is a man who, in his own words, “likes to live on the edge.”
Boardroom suits are generally swapped for chinos and a T-shirt. He prefers listening to Coldplay than mixing with fellow directors at the opera. And his golden rule is that he never has a chauffeur. “I do all the driving around here. I do everything,” he says enthusiastically.
It has been a busy seven years for Dr Bez, but when it comes to running Aston Martin, that seems to go with the territory. During its rocky 94-year existence, the company has gone bust seven times, made just 20,000 cars – at one time averaging just 62 a year. Upon Dr Bez’s arrival in 2000, Aston Martin had just one model, which sold 600 a year.
It was built out of an old coachworks factory in England, with only 20 engineers on the payroll. By 2006, 5000 cars were built. Parent company Ford was finally due to see a profit for the once troublesome subsidiary, and there was a magnificent new, state-of-the-art factory to show off, in which 200 of the world’s best car engineers (all hand picked by Dr Bez) now work.
The DB9 and V12 Vanquish cars finally have a third member of the Aston Martin family among them, and the V8 Vantage cars, priced in the UAE at around US$130,000, are on a two-year waiting list. “I look at where we are now, and I can’t complain. We are doing very well. But when I took this job, I have to admit I didn’t know much about Aston Martin. I was working before this for Porsche and BMW. But there was something mystical about the brand, something that attracted me to it, so I came on board. And I came up with a five-year plan to regenerate the company, and we have now reached the five years. And I feel very good.”
With a thrusting 380bhp at 7000 revs, there is a lot to feel good about. The V8 was seen as a serious competitor to both Ferrari and Porsche – unthinkable even four years ago. The car’s sleek design has already made it a must have for a string of Hollywood and sports superstars. It is a touch over 14 feet long, just over six feet wide and an interior designed liked the cockpit of a fighter jet – including a push button starter. The boot is big enough for three fully loaded golf bags, and the car stereo with a built in six-CD deck puts most top of the range music systems to shame.
Before arriving at the company, Dr Bez served his apprenticeship with Porsche, where he developed one of the best 911 models of all time, the 993. He also worked with BMW and Daewoo, where he developed the Matiz, showing talent for super-minis as well as supercars. The German is the latest colourful car boss to attempt an Aston Martin revival.
In the late 1970s, a consortium including Alan Curtis, the suave, slightly Bond-like property tycoon, whose assets included Farnborough airfield, tried his luck. In the early 1980s, it was the late Pace Petroleum owner Victor Gauntlett. Both found, like others before them, that making a small fortune out of upmarket cars mainly requires starting with a large one. And more than often, that large fortunes soon dwindle.
In 1987, Ford acquired three-quarters of the company and by the 1990s, was the outright owner intent on putting Aston Martin on a firm financial footing.
Now Dr Bez is preparing to work for yet another new, but slightly different owner. The odds are, rather like his style of driving, that he will adapt with ease.
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