Aston Martin: 7 Times BANKRUPT To Making $365 BILLION

would you ever trust a company that went through seven bankruptcies yeah didn't think so but what if I told you this company is now the modern symbol of wealth and Status sounds crazy doesn't it the brand I'm talking about is none other than the Aston Martin so how exactly did James Bond's favorite toy with its own Formula One team go from selling five cars a week to pulling itself out of mountains of debt to generating over a billion pounds in Revenue in 2021 sit tight relax and grab yourself a vodka martini shaken no stirred chapter one humble beginnings okay let's start right from the very beginning Aston Martin was founded in the year 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford under the name Bamford and Martin both these men used to build and service cars for a living so it's safe to say the company had a very humble origin story want to know the funny part they didn't even make any original cars at the time the company was created by Bamford and Martin so they could sell cars made by singer the motor car company however Martin wasn't one to let his current lifestyle restrict him and he enjoyed racing on this particular area known as the Aston hill climb the names making a lot more sense now isn't it anyway Martin had made a special car using an existing engine and Chassis and decided to race it at a competition held in 1914. he saw the benefits of his skills to create a race car and got to work with Bamford immediately one year later the first ever Aston Martin car was built and registered by The Duo this model was called the coal scuttle the things were about to kick off in Grand style the only thing is there was a major world event that broke out around this time chapter 2 War 1 the French Grand Prix and the name change the first world war took Everyone by storm and as expected Martin and Bamford were affected too production had to stop because Martin rushed off to the admiralty and Bamford was sent to the Army service Corps luckily both men survived their service and found a new spot to make their latest car designs however Bamford retired from the company in 1920 so Martin took everything upon himself from this point forward luckily he didn't have to wing it solo for too long because the company got a fresh round of funding from count Luis Borowski soon after the breakup this revitalized the production process and soon enough Martin was looking at the big leagues in 1922 Bamford and Martin manufactured cars which competed in the French Grand Prix but that wasn't enough already these cars went on to break all kinds of Records most notably the world speed and endurance records at the Brooklyn's Motors racing circuit there were three models that were used for racing and breaking these records all of them initially being named as per their chassis numbers however they eventually got nicknames like the green pea the Razer Blade record car and the Halford special all in all these cars broke 10 records and you'd imagine this was the start of something special however that wasn't to be the case as the company only produced and sold 55 cars between 1920 and 1924. this led to bankruptcy number one and they were rescued by Dorothy lady charmwood a politician and philanthropist it was a brief moment of relief for the car manufacturer but the problems never really went away not even a full year later in 1925 the company went bankrupt again and Martin had no other choice but to sell his share in the company he ended up selling it to Lady charnwood herself along with a couple of other investors the most notable of whom was Augustus Bertoli it was at this very point where the company was finally renamed to Aston Martin Motors chapter 3 Berkeley's Reign World War II and the introduction of David Brown Bertoli wasn't just an investor in Aston Martin he also served as the technical director and designer of the company from 1926 to 1937. during this time he designed all the Aston Martin cars which are now famously known as the Bertoli cars the configurations of these models were heavily leaning towards being super fast racing cars on top of that Berta Lee was also a highly competent racer himself and he took the brand name to further prominence with his LMT which went to the lemon racing circuit and even finished third at this Formula One competition if did earn them some brownie points but the balance sheet had a different story to tell Aston Martin was wrecked with financial difficulties once again and in 1932 they had to appeal to Lance prito broon to bail them out of bankruptcy his efforts lasted all but a year as he had to shift his burden to Sir Arthur Sunderland this wasn't a good look for the brand so Aston Martin figured they should focus on a broader Niche they gave it a shot by making road cars that barely produced 700 of them so they were hit with World War II this was bad news for the company as he had to shift all their production activities to making airplane components for fighter jets during the war looks like I found a genuine connection between Aston Martin and Ray-Ban anyway the war was a major economic hindrance but luckily for Aston Martin their cars managed to charm a certain man going by the name of David Brown a hardcore car and Motorsports Enthusiast he basically had a vision to make cars specifically for racing and that's what eventually led him to bail Aston Martin out of bankruptcy and take ownership of the company in 1947. once he did this David brought his own expertise into play and helped them design an atom-based racing car the model turned out to be a huge success for the company and it took it to New unimaginable Heights the atom costs surpassed everyone's expectations when it finished in first place after the 24-hour race at spa in Belgium 1949. as you'd imagine the public wanted to get their hands on the atom car but David didn't want to become a mass seller instead he opted to create only 15 replicas of the model for those driving on the road regardless this collection became iconic and has been retrospectively named as DB1 coming from David's initials because the DB1 became an icon for desirability David shifted his Focus to the db2 which also focused on the style quotient of the car over 400 replicas of this model were manufactured for General sale which is a big deal considering David also wanted to create the db2 as the car which could win him the Le Mans this signaled a revolutionary era an Aston Martin experienced one of its most successful periods under David's leadership he eventually collaborated with Italian designers and created cars that the britishers considered to be a highlight of their culture how could this get any better oh yeah Aston Martin then partnered with the one and only Carol Shelby who went on to win them the Le Mans in 1959 using the gbr1 model this very same model would later be sold at Sotheby's auction in 2017 for over 22 and a half million dollars well there was something even bigger right around the corner both in terms of success and failure chapter 4 James Bond and Victor gauntlet in 1964 a little movie by the name of Goldfinger came along and highlighting it was James Bond's latest Spiker the DB5 this was a huge deal for Aston Martin because the 007 era was at its peak during this time and the general audience began associating their favorite spy with a car that was already hot in the market you'd imagine that sales would have catapulted From This Moment forward but something really weird happened Aston Martin dropped the whole idea of being a public icon and focused on the car industry which is going through a rough patch during this period it was seen as a modern Approach at the time but in hindsight this was a terrible strategy that killed all the momentum they generated from Goldfinger to be honest the only alignment with 007 that came from this decision was the seven bankruptcies anyway between 1972 and 1981 Aston Martin had several changes in ownership and all led to a huge pile of problems and if that wasn't complicated enough in came an additional investor by the name name of Alan Curtis who ended up taking a 42 stake in the company there were new marketing strategies varied PR campaigns and increased prices but nothing was working out for the automotive giant at the end of it all both Sprague and Curtis declared that they never had any long-term plans for Aston Martin in the first place with this latest plot twist we come to the next big owner Victor Gauntlet under his leadership Aston Martin had a more practical approach and focused on creating the right Buzz for its brand Victor didn't really have the best start because in 1982 the company hit a record low when they only produced 30 cars during the entire year however that was primarily because of The Wretched market conditions and he prevailed soon after Victor had already revived an old Aston Martin collaboration with the zargato styling house which led to the creation of some amazing Classics for the brand during this period however the most important contribution the Victor might have made for Aston Martin was negotiating its return to the James Bond film series at this point the days of Sean Connery were long gone and Roger Moore was finally retired so there was an additional risk in associating the new 007 with an Aston Martin car would the public have accepted Timothy Dalton as Britain's most famous spy Victor didn't care about such questions and he immediately sent a vantage model in pre-production to be used for the shooting of The Living Daylights which was released in 1987. while the movie was a moderate hit which only improved its reputation over time Aston Martin didn't get the kind of traction they were looking for chapter 5 Ford takes the steering wheel as passionate as Victor might have been for Aston Martin there was only so much he could do to keep the brand afloat financial problems came to the fore once again but this time Aston Martin was a highly reputable brand it led to Ford coming in for a 75 stake in 1987 only to buy the remaining 25 by 1993. now the company as big as Ford obviously came in with a game plan to change the time for Aston Martin the Victor was still allowed to rule as chairman of the company considering his interests Victor tried to keep the brand affiliated with sports racing but the numbers weren't good enough for him to justify his position with nothing left to offer Victor willingly relinquished his position in 1991 and Ford took full control of the company this led to changes in his production strategies and they worked like a charm Aston Martin ended up producing 700 cars in 1995 which became a personal record for them by now the DB range had already been revived and sales were starting to look consistent once again Ford has been recognized as Aston Martin's most loyal owner as they controlled the company without any external ownership for around 30 years there weren't any major issues with production or revenue and the brand had increased its value to become one of the leading forces in the luxury car market which was worth billions of dollars the added Comfort allowed Ford to announce a return to racing in 2003 and eventually led to the creation of Aston Martin racing in collaboration with prodrive together they focused on the dbr9 program responsible for making the GT class models used for Formula One and other racing competitions chapter 6 going private teaming up with Mercedes-Benz and then going public in March 2007 a group of companies led by Pro-Drive chairman David Richards managed to acquire ownership of Aston Martin for a whopping 848 million dollars Ford still kept a stake valued at around 70 million dollars with this new deal the focus was to capture the Chinese market at Aston Martin managed to land a few dealerships off from extended PR campaign where the latest car models would be driven from Tokyo to Istanbul and then further to London this was followed by multiple Investments and Partnerships but the most prominent of all was the Strategic collaboration with Mercedes-Benz in 2013. the deal basically allowed the next generation of Aston Martin cars to be made with the Mercedes-Benz AMG engines and electrical systems it was a good look for both Brands and Mercedes ended up increasing its Equity stake in the company slowly and gradually What followed was a period of integrated marketing and PR campaigns as Aston Martin also sought to engage its female Market it got off to a good start by presenting itself as as a luxury Lifestyle brand and even collaborating with fashion houses like Hackett in 2018 Aston Martin was valued almost six and a half billion dollars and this prompted the board to list it as a public company named Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC under the London Stock Exchange this helped boost its Financial standing as it attracted bids from Canadian billionaire Lawrence stroll Swiss billionaire Ernesto bertarelli and even the Saudi Arabian public investment fund so what could possibly go wrong chapter 7 Aston gate in November 2020 Aston Martin became part of a massive controversy due to its involvement in the infamous greenwashing campaign in the UK the primary accusation was that the company was promoting misinformation about electric vehicles by funding a greenwashing report they weren't the only ones involved though Bosch McLaren and Honda were some of the other prominent names on the list however because of the direct ties between Aston Martin and the pr agency involved with the distribution of the report this controversy was given the name Aston gate by all the journalists covering it so why would all these Brands commit self-sabotage well it all started when the UK prime minister at the time Boris Johnson had made an announcement stating that the sale of all combustion engine Vehicles will be stopped from the year 2030 in a bid to promote electric and hybrid vehicles this was basically a death warrant being signed without consent so Aston Martin and the other brands stepped in and spread their green washing report like wildfire the key takeaway from this report was that the process of manufacturing electric vehicles was extremely CO2 intensive the numbers had apparently stated that an electric vehicle would have to be driven for at least 80 000 kilometers in order to offset the energy and carbon used up in its production process the report titled decarbonizing Road Transport there is no Silver Bullet was broadcast all over the popular newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph off the Sunday Times and Metro this caught the attention of Michael librick founder of the new energy Finance which was later taken over by Bloomberg together with a Dutch senior advisor named okejo extra Michael was able to expose the report for using inaccurate information and linked it to a PR firm called Clarendon Communications the duo also identified Aston Martin and Bosch as two key clients for Clarendon and published this information immediately eventually Clarendon was exposed as a puppet PR firm with a bogus board of directors chapter 8 moving forward with a diversified portfolio in integrated management board let's just say that bankruptcy number eight isn't something that they should be worrying about after all Aston Martin is still a modern symbol for class and elegance please like share and subscribe if you found this video helpful and tap the Bell icon below to get notified whenever I upload another one take care and stay safe

Channel: Affluent Aces

Views: 36,356

Keywords: aston martin, story of aston martin, 7 times bankrupt to making $365 billion, aston martin 7 bankruptcies, disturbing story of aston martin, how was astin martin made, lawrence stroll aston martin, disturbing history of aston martin, aston martin mercedes partnership, boy who created aston martin, how aston martin was made, full history of aston martin

Id: a71RvSqSixc

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023