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A NEW range of high-tech sports cars are set to be placed on display in a showroom in the kingdom ... as McLaren, partly-owned by Bahrain's Mumtalakat Holding Company, prepares for a world launch in 2011.
McLaren Automotive has taken the first step in developing its global business by appointing Ian Gorsuch as regional director of the Middle East and Africa.
His first task will be to begin appointing retail partners to market the exclusive British high-performance cars while assembling a sales and marketing team at the company's new regional base.
The location for the Middle East and Africa headquarters is yet to be determined but industry insiders suggest the Bahrain International Circuit is a hot contender, as recent plans announced about the @bahrain flagship investment project close-by indicate.
As well as offering exhibition and convention facilities, hotels and indoor arena, the development will offer a range of automotive-related facilities including an engineering section and research institute. Also part of the Mumtalakat Group, @bahrain will be one of the largest projects to have taken place in the kingdom in the past five years.
Meanwhile, the search for retail partners continues. Mr Gorsuch said that his initial challenge would be to locate and work with the right companies who could offer McLaren customers the best of service the first time they visit the showroom, and continue this throughout their ownership.
The former Bentley executive said: "This is a terrific opportunity to launch a new range of high-tech sports cars in a territory that will be a major market for McLaren Automotive.
"There is huge appreciation among this region's car aficionados for sports cars old and new, as well as a huge interest in motorsport.
"McLaren's racing pedigree, its engineering expertise and its sports car heritage, from the likes of past models such as the F1 and the SLR, makes the brand a well-known name among fans of high-tech and innovative sports cars. I am sure that there will be a huge and continuing demand when the first in the new range of McLaren cars is launched in 2011."
McLaren Automotive says it is open to all interested parties, regardless of the segments of brands they have already worked with. The important thing for a retail partner, he said, is demonstrating what they have done with those brands.
"McLaren Automotive's plans for an exemplary network of dealer partners offering a relatively low volume of high-tech sports cars, which outperform rivals in all aspects, is an exciting business case that I expect will interest the region's best retailers," said Mr Gorsuch. "The key areas of the GCC and South Africa will provide our initial markets, but we are researching opportunities across the regions.
"My aim for the network is quality over quantity; I would rather work with a few superb and profitable dealers than spread the business too thin."
Mr Gorsuch will report in to Rob Lindley, McLaren Automotive's sales and marketing director, who is based at the company's global headquaters, the McLaren Technology Centre, in Woking, UK.
McLaren has for more than two years been engaged in a programme to develop a range of pure McLaren sports cars that will build on the successes of the McLaren F1 team featuring world champion Lewis Hamilton. As part of this plan, it is intended that McLaren Automotive, currently one of a number of companies within the McLaren Group, will become an independent company later this year.
The McLaren Group comprises McLaren Automotive, McLaren Racing, McLaren Marketing, McLaren Electronic Systems, McLaren Applied Technologies and Absolute Taste. Bahraini Mumtalakat Holding Company has a 30 per cent shareholding in the McLaren Group.
McLaren Automotive is intending to raise fresh equity in addition to the existing investment in the business to complete the development of the planned vehicle programmes. It has appointed Credit Suisse as its financial advisor, to facilitate this process.
As executive chairman of McLaren Automotive, the company's former F1 supremo Ron Dennis will lead the growth of the new sports car business.
