By Guy Taylor
McLaren has made a string of new board appointments which include the former head of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Torsten Muller-Otvos.
Muller-Otvos was brought in earlier in Mayas the British supercar maker looks to turn around years of losses in the post-Covid era.
The Rolls veteran was the stately brands longest-serving leader and was credited with spearheading its transformation into the super-luxury sector.
He will be joined on the board by Pier-Yves Roussel, chief executive of the American luxury brand Tory Burch, and Dennis Nobelius, a former executive at Volvo, according toCompanies House filings.
The top brass shake-up comes at a critical point in McLaren’s road to recovery. Last year, it reported a record loss of over £870m, an increase of 160 per cent as it was forced to rely on shareholders for extra cash.
But after completing a recapitalisation of its balance sheet, McLaren’s top shareholder, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, took full ownership of the group in March.
It could mark the start of a new chapter for the firm, which was put at risk of collapse in 2022 by the global shortage of semiconductors. The deal was hailed as a “major milestone” at the time and came alongside an £85m cash injection.
McLaren Group then reported reported its best quarter in half a decade over the first few months of March, boosted by a near quarter jump in car sales.
Following the chip shortage crisis, delivery delays of its next-generation hybrid Artura supercar had further impacted the bottom line.
In 2020, McLaren agreed to sell its famous Formula One headquarters in Woking to raise cash as it underwent a major restructuring that saw it cut over 1,000 jobs.
Its subsidiary McLaren Automotive has become a huge player in the market for prestige sportscars in the last 14 years.
McLaren has been approached for comment.
