Lamborghini sticks to 2008 sales target

PARIS (Reuters) - Super sports car maker Lamborghini still aims to increase unit sales by 5 percent this year, though it might feel the aftershocks of the global financial crisis like other luxury brands.

"We are keeping this (target)," Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann told the Reuters Auto Summit on Wednesday.

In the first nine months, Lamborghini sold about 1,900 cars, up 5 percent from the same period last year, he said.

Winkelmann also aims to exceed this year the 10 percent gross profit margin that the maker of the Gallardo Spyder and other exotic speedsters reached in 2007.

For 2009, he said the company is setting a "very prudent" forecast, but wanted to see how the economic crisis played itself out before giving specific numbers.

Based in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy, Lamborghini is owned by Audi, the premium brand of Volkswagen (VOWG.DE). Its cars sell for 200,000 euros or more.

In common with other luxury brands, Lamborghini tends to be impervious to market and economic crises because its clients are rich enough to keep on shopping through them.

But the current crisis seems harder to ignore.

Luxury German sports car manufacturer Porsche (PSHG_p.DE) on Wednesday declined to give a sales forecast for the current year after reporting only a marginal rise in 2007/8 revenues.

PPR's (PRTP.PA) Gucci brand sees buyers of luxury goods becoming more prudent, while Bulgari (BULG.MI), the world's third largest jewelry maker, expects poor Christmas sales.

"We have no immunity," Winkelmann said. "Even if the money is there, you might have people saying from one day to the next: 'I'm not going to buy the car of my dreams.'"

In the United States, Lamborghini's biggest single market, sales have slipped 5 percent, he said, though the company's strategy of making fewer cars than ordered had given it some protection from the vagaries of the market.

In 2007, Lamborghini sold 2,406 cars, and its order book is bulging because of a one-year lead time on deliveries.

Although the credit crunch would make it more difficult for Lamborghini to finance sales, it offers this service to fewer than half its customers.

"Most of our customers pay in cash," he said.

Winkelmann said he was sticking to the strategy that led to a record net profit last year: revitalizing the brand, widening dealer and retail networks and expanding licensing deals.

Winkelmann said he was not worried about Porsche taking control of Volkswagen and had not received orders to change strategy. "It's business as usual," he said.

(Reporting by Gilles Castonguay; editing by John Stonestreet)