Rolls-Royce revealed this week that it will invest 300 million pounds ($376 million) to expand its Goodwood plant in furtherance of an effort to focus more on customization for high-end clients of its luxury automobiles. This means adding anything from gold sculptures and mother-of-pearl artwork to intricate embroideries and holographic paint finishes to its already-expensive cars. The BMW-owned British luxury automaker said that the decision to allocate the funds, the largest injection of cash into the Goodwood plant since it opened in 2003, follows from a 10 percent increase in “bespoke” vehicle revenue per unit in 2024, an all-time high.
“What we are not trying to do is make more Rolls-Royces but what we are trying to do — and we will do — is make more special commissions and more remarkable motor cars,” Chris Brownridge, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said of the plan.
This news is worth noting for companies across the luxury spectrum, as demand for customized goods is growing when it comes to personal luxury goods, like watches, as well. (This is something I first wrote about back in 2021.) The customization and/or personalization of luxury goods is not a novel idea: Hermès made headlines several years ago in connection with its bespoke division, and Goyard is well known to personalize its offerings by way of its “Art of Personalisation” endeavor. Even still, what is still interesting is the fact that in many cases, some of the most in-demand efforts come by way of unaffiliated third parties.
Consider the success of companies like Swiss watch workshop Artisans de Genève and London-based watch customizer Titan Black, and even the Shoe Surgeon, which personalizes sneakers, such as by adding luxury brands’ canvas to them.
If the interest in/demand for products from these third-party companies is any indication, there is room for expansion by luxury brands either via in-house efforts or acquisitions. So far, brands do not appear to be taking kindly to the presence of third-party personalization providers; Rolex sued an unnamed Swiss workshop (almost certainly Artisans de Genève), for example, and Goyard and Nike are in the midst of trademark-centric suits against the Shoe Surgeon. (In its defense to the case waged against it by the Swoosh, the Shoe Surgeon alleges that Nike “reached out to [it for] over a dozen projects and collaborations over the last seven years.”)
Instead of taking legal action to fend off high-end customizers, the move that could potentially garner more traction among consumers and more revenue for brands is a collaboration or an effort to bring these parties on-board to build out in-house customization divisions or more robust ones. (It is also worth noting the sustainability-minded rise in attention to ways to generate revenue without making even more stuff; this could be one!) This is especially true given that these cases are not always a sure-fire win. Rolex, for example, lost its bid to block what is presumably ADG from taking consumers’ existing Rolexes and modifying them; more about that right here.
Given these potential upsides, there could be a meaningful opportunity in customizations.
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