JAMIE CARR: Aston Martin picking up speed
While over in the construction sector, Group Five’s results tell of a company that’s looking shaken and stirred
Ian Fleming’s character may have been a Bentley man, but car maker Aston Martin’s association with the James Bond movie franchise has done wonders for the brand.In the real world you may be an ageing executive with a gut like a wok smuggler and a tragic comb-over, but the moment you slip behind the wheel your mundane existence is transformed. It’s goodbye regional accounts manager, hello international man of mystery, saving the world by day and coaxing improbably beautiful women into the horizontal by night with no more than the twitch of a sardonic eyebrow.Aston Martin has undergone something of a hand-brake turn after years of losses, with cars sold rising by 67% to 2,439 in the six months, revenues nigh on doubling and profits rising to a record £21.1m.Meanwhile over in the construction sector, Group Five’s results tell of a company that’s looking shaken and stirred. In the year to June there was a wholesale purge of the boardroom led by Allan Gray, which holds 25% of the struggl...
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