McLaren’s expansion strategy is running like clockwork. After the flagship showroom in London’s Hyde Park, the British company opened two more retail shops in Germany, in Dusseldorf and Hamburg just before the local Formula 1 Grand Prix. Now, McLaren has landed in Italy.
On Thursday, McLaren opened its first showroom in the city of Milan at an event hosted by the company’s managing director Anthony Sheriff and featuring F1’s 2009 world champion, and current McLaren driver, Jenson Button as well as McLaren’s CEO, Martin Whitmarsh.
“The opening of McLaren Milan marks a significant point in the development of McLaren Automotive” said Sheriff. “My vision for this company is to design and build the most innovative, efficient and high performance sports cars in the world.”
The Milan showroom is the only one planned for Italy and just one of 35 worldwide dearlerships that will sell and provide customer care for McLaren’s supercar, the MP4-12C. At least for the time being, since the company is developing a new range of models to cover the entire supercar segment and challenge Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.
Of course, McLaren’s CEO didn’t miss the opportunity to rival the local opposition in its home ground: “The MP4-12C is unlike other sports cars that buyers in the Italian market are familiar with.” Wonder whom he might be referring to…
