Torsten Muller-Otvos, the Rolls-Royce CEO who turned an aging brand right into a coveted badge of success for pop stars, athletes and young entrepreneurs, is retiring after 14 years.
Rolls-Royce announced Thursday that Muller-Otvos, 63, the longest serving CEO of Rolls-Royce in nearly a century, will retire on December 1. He shall be replaced by Chris Brownridge, currently chief executive officer of BMW UK.
Muller-Otvos brought latest shine to the Rolls-Royce brand and have become a frontrunner in the luxurious world by attracting a latest generation of rich buyers. With sleek models just like the fast-back Wraith, and edgy design schemes like Black Badge, Rolls-Royce’s sales grew greater than six-fold during his tenure, from 1,000 cars sold in 2010 to greater than 6,000 last 12 months.
The common age of a Rolls-Royce buyer fell from 56 to 43. One in five buyers today is a celeb.
“The brand is contemporary today, I’d say cool again,” Muller-Otvos told CNBC. “That indicates to me that we got it right, not only me but the complete team. That makes me extremely proud as I look back and see what a superb, fabulous journey we had.”
Muller-Otvos also launched Rolls-Royce into its next big chapter with last 12 months’s unveiling of the primary fully electric Rolls, called Spectre. The 2-door, 577-horsepower behemoth can do zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds and is already sold out within the U.S. through 2025, despite its steep price of over $413,000.
The large query going forward for Rolls is whether or not it may well maintain its cool factor, and robust sales, if the U.S. economy starts to falter. The U.S. stays its largest market, and while Mutter-Otvos said demand and orders remain strong, the corporate is all the time prepared for a correction.
“The posh market just isn’t immune against any any recessionary developments,” he said. “For us, the business remains to be very strong, nevertheless it is on a distinct level in comparison with what it was right after the pandemic. I’d say that has normalized now to levels we’re used to, but we’re still in a really strong position.”
Muller-Otvos is the longest-serving CEO of Rolls-Royce since Claude Johnson, who brought Charles Rolls and Henry Royce together in 1904 and served until 1926.
Muller-Otvos said when he joined Rolls-Royce, it was an elite brand that was aging fast. Its signature, the four-door Phantom, was designed for chauffeurs to ferry around members of the graying leisure class easily and silently. Muller-Otvos visited private bankers around the globe to learn the way the rich were quickly changing — especially with the rise of tech wealth.
“That was quite an eye-opening moment,” he said. “All of the private banks told me their clients were getting younger, way more informal and with so much more women. We said to ourselves, we’d like something to draw this younger consumer. It needed to be rejuvenated. That is not something you’ll be able to do in only two years. That could be a long, long story that takes a few years to attain.”
In 2013, Rolls-Royce unveiled the Wraith, a racy, two-door coupe with a twin-turbo V12 that was designed for the rich to drive, slightly than to be driven in.
That was followed in 2015 by the Dawn convertible, and in 2019 by the Cullinan SUV, which became a favourite of NBA stars and other big athletes. Rolls-Royce debuted the Black Badge line in 2016, featuring higher performance and an all-black color scheme (including the famous Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament).
Muller-Otvos also ushered in a latest era of customization, which lured latest customers and larger profit margins. Dubbed “Bespoke,” this system allows Rolls-Royce buyers to decide on their very own fabrics, paint colours, materials and interior lighting schemes to make a one-of-a-kind Rolls.
The customization program is one reason the common sale price of a Rolls-Royce has doubled since Muller-Otvos took over, to about 500,000 euros.
“None of our clients want only a product off the shelf,” he said. “They need it to hold their individual signature and their individual story. Now we have put a whole lot of resources into Bespoke and now every automotive leaving [our factory] is fully bespoke.”