‘SKODA’s growth strategy has led to positive results in the first half of this year,’ said SKODA chief executive officer, Winfried Vahland. ‘We have grown in all relevant fields, thus creating a good base for the second half, which will be challenging for the automobile industry because of the economic situation in Europe,’ he added.

SKODA’s sales revenue grew by 6.6% to 5.7bn Euros (H1 of 2011: 5.4bn Euros), driven by higher delivery volumes and market share gains in nearly all sales regions. Operating profit reached 449m Euros in the first half of the year, up 9.0% year-on-year. Under SKODA’s on-going model offensive, investment (without capitalised development costs) in new products rose to 217m Euros, up from 80m in H1 of 2011.

‘In the first half of 2011, SKODA brand posted solid financial results and completed important investments into its future,’ said SKODA CFO Winfried Krause. ‘This was possible thanks to rising deliveries to customers and strict cost management,’ he added.