Australia vital to McLaren

Australia could soon be one of McLaren Automotive’s top-10 markets. That’s the verdict of the British sports car brand’s sales and marketing head, Jolyon Nash.

Down Under to meet with local McLaren connections and customers, Nash told motoring.com.au that the brand sees Australia as a key market — both in terms of its influence in the region and globally.

“We don’t see it [Australia] as a small market,” Nash told motoring.com.au at McLaren’s newest showroom on Melbourne’s Southbank.

“This is a market well in excess of a million cars. There’s a real culture of motorsports, sports cars [and] a strong following for F1. So, for us, this is a very important market and we feel [there is] a lot of potential for McLaren here and believe we can grow from strength to strength,” the McLaren sales boos stated.

“I would certainly see it… [Australia] has the potential to fill [a spot in] the top 10 markets,” he said.

McLaren was established by late Kiwi racer, Bruce McLaren. Since 1981, the McLaren brand and its various entities has been controlled by F1 identity, Ron Dennis.

McLaren Automotive is the road car division of the operation. It has gained notoriety as the producer of what’s claimed to be the world’s most potent production car, the P1. Before the P1, the company produced arguably the world’s first hypercar, the McLaren F1, in both road and race car versions.

Production volumes of the current McLaren line-up are limited to around 1400 units per annum. The company has delivered less than 70 cars to Australian owners since it entered the local marketplace in 2012. Last year it sold just 26 cars in Australia. This compares to more than 100 Ferraris, a similar number of Aston Martins and around 50 Lamborghinis.

But Nash says the company will double its production in the next two years. He says it has hopes of increasing sales Down Under both with existing 650S variants (including the track-only 650 Sprint and 650 GT3) and eventually via the arrival of new, cheaper ‘Sport Series’ models.

“The Sports Series… [will] certainly will help our growth in Australia. But, you know, before that car arrives, we believe we will see some pretty healthy growth with the 650S range,” Nash opined.

Nash says he is keen to see the British marque sidestep the boom-and-bust cycle high-performance cars usually follow — especially in markets like Australia. Sustainable and steady growth is his target.

“We’re still in the early phases of our development. We’re a young business… so we shouldn’t be following a boom-and-bust cycle. I think that part of our business strategy is to make sure that we have a healthy enough portfolio of products that gives us some stability.

“That’s the trick in sort of the luxury segment of the car market is to make sure that you can generate stable sales over a period of time.”

“As we grow our presence in Australia with our existing model range, we would expect to see some healthy growth in our business. Additionally, when Sports Series comes to market, we see further growth.

"Overall, if we look at our global growth ambitions, you know, if we double our volume over the next two years, we would be pretty happy,” he stated.

Getting closer to existing and prospective Australian customers is a priority, says Nash.

“The more we can mix with our customers; the more we can speak to our customers; get their feedback — what they like, what they don’t like — the better.

“Our approach to the Australian market will be to try and expose as many potential customers to our products as possible…

“Give them driving experiences so they can get to understand exactly what a McLaren offers,” Nash stated.