Rolls-Royce announces £300m investment after Dubai bespoke cars trailblazing

Rolls-Royce Motors' chief executive sees 'very strong demand' for complex bespoke commissions from the Middle East

The Rolls-Royce Black Badge Dawn in Ras Al Khaimah. Rolls-Royce delivered 5,712 in 2024, slightly lower than the previous year, but still its third-highest annual performance. Photo courtesy Rolls-RoyShow more

The chief executive of luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce Motors has told The National that increased investment in its Goodwood plant in the UK comes on the back of "very strong" demand for complex bespoke commissions in the Middle East.

Chris Brownridge said Rolls-Royce's Dubai private office, where prospective buyers meet designers and client experience managers to bring a bespoke commission to life, has been "very successful" for the company. "We are seeing some really spectacular commissions coming from the private office in Dubai," he told The National, "and it's really thrilling to see those coming to life in the production facility at Goodwood."

The company, which is owned by BMW, opened its first international private office in Dubai in 2022, followed by one in Shanghai the following year. They were joined last year by new private offices in Seoul and New York.

The company said it was not always convenient for Rolls-Royce's clients to travel to its Goodwood factory in southern England, where it will now invest more than £300 million , as the luxury carmaker looks to expand its bespoke business following a successful year of sales last year.

Bespoke content value increased 10 per cent on average per motor car year-on-year in 2024, a record for Rolls-Royce. Creating highly personalised products and experiences for individual clients has been an area the company has been concentrating on for some time, which have included fine details such as solid 18-carat gold sculptures, intricate embroideries involving nearly a million stitches, artworks crafted from mother of pearl and holographic paint finishes.

“Rolls-Royce bespoke can mean something as simple as a hand-painted coach line with a family monogram through to a motor car with embedded pieces of mother of pearl from the family collection or a headliner featuring a fibre-optic starlight constellation of the date and location of where you were born, through to a coach-built car. So, it's a very broad spectrum of possibilities,” Mr Brownridge said.

Rolls-Royce Motors' bespoke business does particularly well in the Middle East, although it gets commissioned by an extremely diverse set of ultra-high net worth individuals. Last year, the company expanded its private office network to Seoul and New York to cater for this growing part of the business. Bespoke commissions through the private office network generally carry a 25 per cent premium.

"The luxury experience is not just having a Rolls-Royce motor car," Mr Brownridge told The National. "It's the whole engagement with us as a business, as a family, and also the joy of the commissioning process. Quite often, a client may come to Goodwood and have their motor car presented to them, and they'll immediately be thrilled with their motor car. But they'll immediately want to start the process again for another Rolls-Royce. That is the luxury experience that we're so proud of.”

Driving sales figures

In terms of total numbers, Rolls-Royce delivered 5,712 in 2024, slightly lower than the previous year, but still its third-highest annual performance. North America was Rolls-Royce Motors' biggest region in terms of deliveries, while several others, including the Middle East and Africa, saw record sales. The well-established markets of the UAE, Germany and Japan were among a number of countries that achieved record sales in 2024.

In terms of sales in China, Mr Brownridge said there had been some "headwinds, but the market has been "pretty much in line with our expectations".

"If we look back in history, we've seen ups and downs in this region," he told The National. "But we're very committed to China. We've invested there with the private office and also we've invested with a dedicated logistics and parts facility so that we can provide a stronger service to our clients in China. So, it's a region that we expect to see more growth in as well.”

As far as the US is concerned and the threat of tariffs once Donald Trump moves into the White House once again, Mr Brownridge said Rolls-Royce Motors will take a "wait-and-see" approach. "In the luxury sector, clients tend to be more price-elastic. But we'll respond when we know what is likely to be on the road ahead of us. But we're still very optimistic about the USA region. We've got a very strong client base and very strong demand," he said.

Spectre sales spark

Last year was the first full year of deliveries for the new electric model, the Spectre, which was the most requested Rolls-Royce model in Europe and the second most demanded globally. Mr Brownridge said the feedback from clients who had bought one showed "the satisfaction they have with Spectre is higher than any other Rolls-Royce model".

"It's the first Rolls-Royce to combine a traditional Rolls-Royce with a sophisticated and highly engineered electric power train," he told The National. "The extraordinary refinement and silence of driving, the ease of driving, and also the magic carpet ride experience and waftability is taken to new highs. In fact, it's been the second most in-demand Rolls-Royce motor car this year, which is extraordinary for a two-door coupe."

As a company, hard sales numbers mean less to Rolls-Royce than they would to one of the large global car makers, not only because they deliver comparatively few during the year, but because buying a Rolls-Royce is more a continuing luxury experience than a straight forward financial transaction.

"We're a house of luxury and scarcity, and matching our output with client demand is critical to our success, Mr Brownridge told The National. "I think looking into the year ahead, it's going to be a windy year, in that there will be winds in our sails in some parts of the world and some headwinds as well. But we're cautiously optimistic and our expectations are that we'll have another solid year, and we will also continue the growth of bespoke aspects of our business, which is our core area of focus.”