The French automaker Renault have seen a 59% profit increase for 2013. This is due to the companies low cost car division Dacia.
Dacia is a Romania automobile manufacturing company which has now been a subsidiary of Renault since 1999 and has only in recent years become a more worldwide brand due to its low cost vehicles.
A statement released by Renault on the 13th February 2014 says that the companies earnings before taxes, one time items and interest for 2013 was 1.24 billion Euros. This is an increase of 59% over the previous years earnings (782 billion Euros in 2012).
This has helped Renault to set new targets for the next three years. They are aiming to boost revenue to 50 billion Euros and to increase the return of sales to 5%.
In the past three years Renault set a target of 2 billion Euros of cumulative free cash flow and they surpassed this, reaching a total of 2.5 billion Euros. This has helped Renault to set a new three year goal of producing a positive free cash flow.
Renault was the only one of the top five automobile manufacturing companies to report sales growth in Europe in 2013. The Renault brand actually had a 1.5% decrease compared with the 23% increase in the Dacia brand. This is what has allowed Renault to post profits for the year.
Renault's CEO Carlos Ghosn had this to say in a statement “"The commitment of all Renault employees enabled the group to meet its 2013 objectives in an unfavourable environment. Strengthened by this result, the group can begin the second part of its strategic plan with confidence."
