If you’re a highly visible millionaire in China, the Middle East, Latin America or Russia, how do you protect yourself from predators while driving your Bentley? Well, the solution may be near. Bentley is considering dipping its toes into the secure vehicle business by developing an armored car division. Emerging economies around the world are producing more millionaires and the need for security is growing in light of kidnapping and assassination fears. Bentley currently doesn’t build armored vehicles from their Crewe, England manufacturing facility, and declines to comment on whether they’ve ever built a secure armored vehicle.
Bentley CFO Jan-Henrik Lafrentz spoke of the particular demand in Latin America, “We are growing in more and more markets there. For these markets, security is an issue. “ Addressing the worldwide growing demand for armored vehicles, he stated, “There is also demand from Russia and the Middle East. We cannot do this for just one country. There are other countries where there is need for this.” A final decision has not been made, and there is no indication whether the plant would be operated by Bentley or another specialized manufacturer.
Bentley has experienced double digit growth in recent years and has been enjoying high visibility success from their partnerships with top hotels around the world who now offer a Bentley as the house car. Their new eco-friendly Continental GT for 2013 is expected to grab an additional share of buyers as well. And their brand new foray into the lucrative Russian market will certainly help them to achieve their lofty goal of doubling sales by 2017.
