BESPOKE: GOODWOOD’S JEWEL IN THE CROWN
GOODBYE, GHOST —
UNTIL THE NEXT
2019 also marked the end of Ghost production after 11 years of uninterrupted commercial and critical success. Since its launch at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2009, Ghost has established itself as an undisputed modern classic. The most popular RollsRoyce
model of the Goodwood era, Ghost attracted a new audience of younger, often self-made, entrepreneurial customers to the Rolls-Royce brand. An extended wheelbase version was introduced in 2011 and an updated Ghost Series II was unveiled in Geneva in 2014. The last Ghost of the current generation left the Goodwood production line at the end of 2019.
Ghost has been a highly successful and vitally important car for Rolls-Royce. Over its 11-year lifecycle — a truly remarkable record for any motor car — it became the biggest-selling RollsRoyce not just of the Goodwood era, but in the entire history of the marque. The commercial success of Ghost placed RollsRoyce in a position to scale up its production and make the massive investments that have led to it becoming the truly global brand it is today.
Ghost’s successor is due for launch in mid-2020 after five years in development. With market availability from the fourth quarter, the successor will elevate the Ghost name, and the company itself, to new heights of excellence and ambition in design, engineering, materials and driving dynamics.
Global demand for Rolls-Royce Bespoke reached a new peak in 2019. The Bespoke Collective at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, comprises several hundred creative designers, engineers and craftspeople. These highly talented men and women take enormous pride in fulfilling unprecedented levels of customer requests for Bespoke personalization and delivering on beautiful individual commissions such as the Rose Phantom. Undisputed global leaders in their pursuit of perfection, the Bespoke Collective captured the imagination of customers, enthusiasts, media and fans alike in 2019 with some of the most spectacular Collection Cars ever created in the history of the brand.
Among the year’s Bespoke highlights was the Zenith Collector’s Edition of Rolls-Royce Ghost. Limited to just 50 examples, this masterpiece was created to mark the end of Ghost’s remarkable 11-year reign.
A DIVERSE AND EXPANDING FAMILY
At more than 2,000 strong, with 50 nationalities represented, the work force at the Home of Rolls-Royce is now at its largest since the opening of Rolls-Royce’s Global Centre for Luxury Manufacturing Excellence, in 2003. During 2020, 50 new jobs were created to meet expanded global demand.
This year’s intake of 26 new entrants on the company’s highly successful Apprenticeship Program included the first-ever Sir Ralph Robins Degree Apprenticeship candidates. Named after the ex-CEO of Rolls-Royce plc, Sir Ralph has served as a Non-Executive Director of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since its inception in 2003.
Since the launch of the Apprenticeship Program in 2006, almost 200 participants have completed a combination of hands-on practical training alongside skilled Associates and vocational training at local colleges. A number of these remarkable men and women have gone on to hold important technical and supervisory roles within the company.