BMW 2014 Annual Report Download - page 15

15 STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT
Dear Shareholders,
The successes a company has achieved in the past belong to its history. All that matters today is a com-
pany’s future. Forward-looking companies renew themselves of their own initiative. It is crucial for a company
to question its own actions, explore new directions and consistently implement innovations to benefit its
customers. Financial strength allows companies to invest in the future – thereby securing longterm success
and fulfilling responsibilities towards shareholders, associates and other stakeholders.
BMW will reach its 100th year in 2016. We naturally plan to celebrate this important milestone in our
history. It is a testament to our value-based corporate philosophy, geared towards the long term and shaped
by independent-minded decisions. But above all else, this centenary compels us to look to the future.
Investors in the BMW Group can look forward to long-term value enhancement, on the basis of healthy,
organic growth. Our shareholders can rely on us to sustain our profitability. Strong competition, market
volatility, political uncertainty, new trends in our environment – all of this is part of our daily business.
We firmly believe that mobility will remain a fundamental human need and a cornerstone of dynamic
economies. We aim to lead the industry with our ideas in all areas of individual mobility, transporting sheer
driving pleasure to a new age of sustainable mobility. This is an exciting direction for us – and a profitable
one for our shareholders who accompany us along this path.
2014 financial year – fifth successive record year for the BMW Group In the 2014 financial year, the
company’s successful development since the global financial and economic crisis of 2008 / 2009 continued.
We had set ourselves ambitious goals in a difficult environment: record sales of over two million vehicles;
our highest-ever Group profit before tax, with a significant increase year-on-year; and an EBIT margin in our
target range of eight to ten per cent for the Automotive Segment.
Today, we can say: we delivered on our promises. Group profit before tax climbed 10.3 per cent to
8.7 billion euros. Net profit increased by 9.2 per cent to more than 5.8 billion euros. The EBIT margin in the
Automotive Segment stands at 9.6 per cent and therefore at the upper end of our target range.
Strong demand for our premium vehicles is the main factor contributing to record revenues of 80.4 billion
euros. For the first time, we sold more than two million vehicles worldwide in a single year – 2.118 million
BMW, MINI and RollsRoyce vehicles, to be exact – fulfilling a wish for many customers. This represents an
increase of 7.9 per cent over the previous year and a new sales high for the BMW Group.
With regard to our individual brands, there were new records for BMW, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad.
More than 1.8 million customers purchased a BMW in 2014. Our MINI brand maintained roughly the same
high level as the previous year, with a total of 302,000 vehicles sold, despite the model changeover. Our
MINI plant in Oxford in the UK produced its three-millionth MINI last year. With exactly 4,063 vehicles sold,
Rolls-Royce remains in strong demand and continues to set the standard for the ultra-luxury class. BMW
Motorrad also reported growth, with more than 123,000 deliveries, and once again outperformed the overall
market. The anniversary model BMW R nineT and the fully electric C evolution proved popular with both
customers and the automotive press.
The Financial Services segment once again made a solid contribution to the success of the BMW Group.
Impact of Strategy Number ONE reflected in key performance indicators We laid the foundation for
this successful development back in 2007 with our Strategy Number ONE. This strategy guides all our busi-
ness activities into 2020 and has already taken the company to a new dimension. We operate at an entirely
different level of performance today than in 2007.