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Aston Martin

Aston Martin Lagonda Limited
Private limited company
Industry Automobile manufacturing
Founded London, 1913 (1913)
Founder
Headquarters Gaydon, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products Automobiles
Revenue £474.3 million (2010)
£7.6 million (2010)
Owner Prestige Motor Holdings (39%)
Asmar (19%)
Primewagon (Jersey) Ltd (19%)
Adeem Investments (11%)
Daimler (5%)
DAR Capital (5%)
Sthewaz Automotive (2%)
Other Minor Shareholders (10%)
Number of employees
1,250 (2010)
Subsidiaries
Website astonmartin.com

Aston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. It was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The firm became associated with luxury grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger. The car is regarded as a British cultural icon.

The company has had a chequered financial history, including bankruptcy in the 1970s, but has also enjoyed long periods of success and stability, including under the ownership of David Brown, from 1947 to 1972 and of the Ford Motor Company from 1994 to 2007.

In March 2007, a consortium of investors, led by David Richards, purchased 92% of Aston Martin for £479 million, with Ford retaining a £40 million stake. David Richards became chairman of Aston Martin. In December 2012, the Italian private equity fund Investindustrial signed a deal to buy 37.5% of Aston Martin, investing £150 million as a capital increase.

Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London where they also serviced GWK and Calthorpe vehicles. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles. The first car to be named Aston Martin was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta-Fraschini.


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