Torsten, can you start by telling us some details about this new boutique showroom concept?
This boutique is unique because it locates the brand far away from the regular “car mile” of a city. It brings us into one of the most affluent areas of Dubai and it will attract new clientele. It’s the next era of what I would call luxury when it comes to how we approach customers. Rolls-Royce is the most well-known luxury brand in the world, if I may say so. You don’t need to explain to anybody what Rolls-Royce is about. We are more than a regular car business. We are a luxury goods business, and this boutique opens up the world of Rolls-Royce; it gives an insight into bespoke, into commissioning your own car. The set up here is something we’ve already done in Goodwood and it is in line with pop-ups we do worldwide, where we follow the wealth into the jet-set hotspots, be it Porto Cervo in Sardinia, St. Moritz or Aspen.
Why did you choose Dubai as the debut location?
Dubai is a thriving world capital city. It’s a hub for the world and in my opinion, it is trend setting when it comes to architecture and real estate, and with the combination of tourism and big business, Dubai is second to none. For that reason, it’s the ideal location for us as a luxury brand. And of course, we have lots of customers here. The UAE is one of our biggest markets worldwide. The whole region is the second biggest region after the United States and Dubai ranks in our top five dealerships worldwide. Abu Dhabi is number one, closely followed by Dubai.
Can you tell us about the Pinnacle Café downstairs? What coffee does Rolls-Royce driver drink?
I think there is no special coffee, at least not to my knowledge! But they offer all ranges here, from cappuccino to macchiato and espresso. Did you try one? The café is a world first. We have something similar to the rest of the concept at Goodwood, the home of Rolls-Royce but we don’t have a café there. What I like about this café is that it is very much open for the quality members only – for people who are driving Rolls-Royces and who are Rolls-Royce owners. They have a very special, separate access here. It’s kind of a club.
The age of the average Rolls-Royce driver has dropped. Who are the Rolls-Royce drivers of today – are they twentysomething multimillionaires?
A very good point. As you rightly say, the average age of Rolls-Royce drivers has significantly dropped over the last six or seven years by over 10 years. The worldwide average is now 45 years, which is quite remarkable if you consider that for everybody who is 60, you need to have someone who is 30 to come up with that average. We see more and more millennial now generating wealth. It’s not so much any longer that wealth is inherited, it’s very much self generated by businesses being set up, and that can be IT, robotics, AI, real estate, whatever.
There are lots of different opportunities all over the world to make good money; that is how our potential customer base develops and for that reason, we are catering for what we see as a trend – that the customer base is getting younger. It’s also the reason we have introduced for instance, Wraith – the first time in the history of Rolls-Royce that we have a fastback coupe. We also introduced at the beginning of this year, Dawn – the spectacular, new convertible from Rolls-Royce, and a couple of weeks ago, Black Badge – the more menacing, alter ego of Rolls-Royce. So we are doing quite a lot on the product side to cater to the new target groups, and quite a lot on the marketing side. This includes social media, which we have explored massively and also being relevant on certain channels, which are seen and liked by our potential customers.
Is it a fine line with keeping the brand exclusive, yet accessible to this youthful new market?
I often say that youthfulness and luxurious and exclusiveness are not a contradiction. Not at all, because our younger customers are very fond of being treated as high-end luxurious customers, and all our customers – be them young or old – are very much interested that we keep ourselves exclusive in terms of price positioning. We would never lower our price positioning just for the sake of pure volume – we would never do that – and it’s the reason why we have established what I would call the best bespoke programme on earth. There is nobody who can offer such a variety of choice. Your imagination is our limit when it comes to customising your car, and our clientele loves that because they can build their own masterpiece. It’s like you are creating your own piece of art.
Is it a fine line with keeping the brand exclusive, yet accessible to this youthful new market?
I often say that youthfulness and luxurious and exclusiveness are not a contradiction. Not at all, because our younger customers are very fond of being treated as high-end luxurious customers, and all our customers – be them young or old – are very much interested that we keep ourselves exclusive in terms of price positioning. We would never lower our price positioning just for the sake of pure volume – we would never do that – and it’s the reason why we have established what I would call the best bespoke programme on earth. There is nobody who can offer such a variety of choice. Your imagination is our limit when it comes to customising your car, and our clientele loves that because they can build their own masterpiece. It’s like you are creating your own piece of art.
What kind of personalisation requests do you get from this region?
I can tell you lot of stories. In particular in the Middle East, you see a lot of creativity and intricate details when it comes to embroidery and marquetry. We see a lot of lovely mother-of-pearl marquetry here, and ruby and diamond inlays, bar sets being commissioned, beautiful colour combinations. The imagination here is far-reaching. We are building magnificent cars for the Middle East.
Many luxury carmakers are entering the SUV space and this is land of SUVs. Can you share any details about Cullinan, Rolls-Royce’s all-terrain foray?
You will see me quite tight-lipped about project Cullinan because we want to keep it as a surprise for the world. Rest assured, it will be a beautiful Rolls-Royce. The only thing I can tell you is this project is making good progress in engineering and it will be an important one for this region – that is for sure.
Rolls-Royce is well-known for aircraft engines and luxury mobility as a whole – but will we ever see its bespoke luxury interior expertise in a first-class cabins or private jets?
The jet-engine manufacturing company is very separate from the motoring company. We do have, of course, from time to time, customers asking if we might help to equip their private jets, but this is not what I would call big business or a major part of our business, definitely not.
But you do get those requests?
We do get requests from time to time, but the aviation industry is very different to the car industry when it comes to materials. We are quite happy to be with our automotive business, and there is no reason for us to enter completely new fields. We have not carried out those requests, because you are confronted with completely different safety regulations and this isn’t something we are used to.
What about hotels? Rolls-Royce already has partnerships with luxury hotels such as the Burj Al Arab for example, which uses the cars as courtesy vehicles – will Rolls-Royce lend its design expertise to hotel suites?
Again, it’s also something we’ve had requests for, but when you start to do something like that and license your brand you are, to a certain extent, losing control. What I don’t want to be is out of control. We are talking about the most exclusive, most luxurious brand in the world and what I don’t want to see or want customers to be confronted with is some tarnished former Rolls-Royce hotel room. The brand is authentic in what it does when it comes to cars, when it comes to bespoke, and when it comes to what I would call the luxurious ambiance we create. It’s more than only a car – it’s also customer service, which is extremely important for us. That is where we are good, this is where our competency is. I don’t think we need to leverage ourselves in any way by doing rooms or perfumes or razor foams.
Onto innovations – in particular, the self-driving concept car VISION NEXT 100. Can you share any more details?
That car is what I would call our lighthouse for the future. It projects Rolls-Royce into 2040 – long term, 25 years from now. It has fully autonomous driving, it has electric propulsion, battery or fuel cell, it is coach-built in a completely new form and it brings back the glorious times when customers could commission their own body styles, which is unfortunately no longer possible. But with an autonomous drive, safety issues are no longer a concern. We see progress when it comes to 3D printing and new technologies and that will allow a fully custom-built body. Also, that car encapsulates artificial intelligence (AI) with a voice called Elena, which is our Spirit of Ecstasy, who guides you. The dream of this car is what we call a “grand revival”. You might know that very famous painting by Botticelli called Birth of Venus, when Venus steps out of a clam shell – it is the same with the car opening up the roof to allow you to enter upright. You don’t need to bend to get in this car. It’s a glorious departure and arrival. You walk in, sit down, the clam shell closes, and off you go.
Lastly, I read that Mark Court is teaching the Rolls-Royce coachline technique to his son Ashley. Is he good enough yet?
Interesting. Mark is still in charge for bespoke and coachline painting. He has taught two apprentices who are capable in developing the same kind of art he is doing. It’s unbelievable when you see it with your own eyes, when he is drawing the coachline free hand. It’s not printed or robot painted, it is painted by hand. It’s a capability and a craftsmanship you don’t find anywhere else in the market. Coachlines are becoming increasingly popular, and for that reason, we needed to train someone else in that capacity.
INSIDE THE ROLLS-ROYCE BOUTIQUE:
Taking pride of place on a corner position at City Walk, there’s no missing the new Rolls-Royce boutique showroom concept, with its top-to-bottom vectorized pixel-animation screens on the external windows. The highly progressive, new experiential space spans 7,300 sq. feet and is set to become a place to “see and be seen” for the region’s luxury elite, complementing the brand’s existing showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Opening with a glamorous party last month and a VIP guest list of Rolls-Royce owners, dignitaries and local celebrities, the boutique allows clientele to create their one-of-a-kind bespoke car in a series of experiential areas including the Inspiration Studio, Bespoke Atelier, and Interactive Spirit of Ecstasy – each featuring different examples of artisanal craftsmanship, from rare woods, leathers and paints to marquetry, piping and stitching. Downstairs, there’s the Pinnacle Café for owners and Rolls-Royce drivers to imbibe coffee (our cappuccino had a chocolate “RR” sprinkled on top), while the local influence upstairs includes an original piece of art depicting the Spirit of Ecstasy by Syrian artist Khaled Al Saaei. As well as helping potential buyers conjure up a vision of their bespoke vehicle, the boutique also offers shopping in the Affinity Area, with a selection of luxury brands displaying their rarest and most unique wares.