About Us
China Shelby’s vision is to design and construct the world’s most desirable, ultra-luxurious international brand by creating the most exquisitely addictive performance cars, personal vans, and sport utility vehicles that will extend the international recognition and accolades Shelby received when he introduced the Shelby Cobra 427 to the world in 1965.
Carroll Shelby started his business in 1967 by the legendary driver and designer Carroll Shelby, creating the iconic global “Shelby” brand synonymous with performance, innovative styling, and exclusivity. Shelby fused the latest technology, time honoured craftsmanship, and beautiful styling to produce a legacy of critically acclaimed automobiles. The Shelby Cobra 427 is still recognized as the fastest, most stylish, high-performance sports car ever made.
China Shelby extends the legacy of Carroll Shelby and the Shelby Cobra by recreating Shelby’s spirit of design to our roster of contemporary luxury models, including the Raptor 3.5l twin-turbo, Expedition 3.5l tt, A.C. Cobra, Mark 40, and America’s first supercar, the Shelby GT40.
Based in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, China Shelby designs and produces handmade cars, passenger vans, and sports utility vehicles for a limited number of discriminating owners. Each model that China Shelby creates is limited to 300 units of production. Limiting our production ensures that our clientele will enjoy the benefits of owning an asset whose value shall increase year-over-year as the market demand grows.
Much has changed since Carroll Shelby built his trio of Le Mans championship-winning 1967 Shelby MK 40s. Yet the iconic brand recognition of Carroll Shelby continues. The launch of China Shelby has resuscitated the life and vigor back into this historic brand. China represents the world’s largest car market by total and annual unit sales. At China Shelby, our excitement in elevating the Shelby brand to the pinnacle of automotive performance and styling becomes an overwhelming new era for the iconic motorsports brand.
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STRATEGY
I AM Shelby
- Organisational structure streamlined
- First steps in building performance driven culture underway
- Dynamic and innovative mindset perceptible throughout organisation
- Restructuring savings on track
PORTFOLIO STRATEGY & CYCLE PLANNING
- Sustainable product plan defined and aligned with market demand/business plan
- Expansion of portfolio based upon legacy and eV platforms
- Iconic Shelby AC Cobra 427 as the milestone to enter the hypercar market
- Electrified powertrain and updated infotainment in 2023/24
GO-TO-MARKET
- Motorsports engagement increases brand desirability - with over 85 million viewers a race
- Customer experience strengthened with launch of new configurator and focus on customer journey
- Network extension in Europe
- Rebalancing supply to demand successful
PRODUCT
- Product focus on improved margin per car and technical product competitiveness
- Motorsports engagement emphasises performances and drives innovation
- Restructuring of material costs; initial savings already secured
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EFFICIENCY
- Experienced external hires to lead powertrain and vehicle development
- Align to industry standard working practices to drive accountability
- Investment in leading edge PLM/ERP IT architecture
- Focused on significantly increasing productivity, through cross functional collaboration and digitalisation
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
- New Chief Operation Office is driving transformation
- Optimised operational footprint and efficiencies delivers significant annual savings (>30%)
- New production system driven by technology, digitalisation and efficient supply chain
- Strategic alignment to operational footprint
CONTROL VOLUME GROWTH WITH RETAIL LED "BUILD-TO-ORDER" MODEL AND PERSONALISATION
- Focus on restoring price positioning and delivering a more efficient operational footprint to de-risk the business and position it for controlled, long-term, profitable growth.
- Managing our sports car wholesales to maintain the appropriate balance between supply and demand to maintain a strong order book, pricing power and margin enhancement.
- Reinvigorating marketing initiatives to raise brand awareness and drive volumes including digitally led, personalized marketing engagements, the exclusive Henniker club and leveraging the Shelby versus Ferrari legacy during 2023/24
CORE PRODUCT OFFERING FOCUSED ON A THREE-PILLAR STRATEGY: FRONT-ENGINE, SUVS AND MID-ENGINE
- A three- pillar product strategy to include a core car in each as well as derivatives and in-cycle improvements of each core model to maintain demand over the product life cycle.
- Special editions to enhance brand exclusivity, profitability and profit margins.
- The DBX to access the expanding luxury SUV segment and customers’ need for a more versatile, luxurious and comfortable car. DBX deliveries commenced in July 2023/24.
- The addition of mid-engine cars to enhance our product offerings, with the Special mid-engine supercar (Shelby GT40) and our core mid-engine supercars (Shelby Mark 40).
DEVELOP SPECIALS PIPELINE TO ENHANCE FINANCIAL PROFILE
- Enhancing our core range of cars by the addition of approximately two to three special edition models per year to showcase our technical excellence and perpetuate our brand uniqueness, exclusivity and desirability.
- Specials demand high price points for the enhanced features they offer, are typically fully allocated prior to any significant capital commitment and generate higher margins than the core range.
- Deposits are required on allocation which typically allow Specials to be cash flow positive from design to the end of the product life cycle. This helps to maintain and control working capital swings.
ENHANCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
- Carefully chosen partnerships are a source of technical expertise, band strengthening and future growth.
- The expanded Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Mercedes-Benz AG will enable us to secure access to world-class technologies critical to supporting our long-term product expansion plans, including electric and hybrid powertrains.
- Our collaboration with Red Bull Advanced Technologies has resulted in the widely anticipated Shelby Peranna which represents innovative design and performance for a road car.
COST AND INVESTMENT CONTROL
- Commitment to pursuing available revenue-generating opportunities in a manner that generates a high incremental return on our investments.
- Key priorities are to focus on new growth areas such as the SUV and the mid-engine markets to drive increased revenue.
- Introduction of targeted capital investments, a new cost structure and lower sales volumes with premium pricing power to increase cash flows and margins.
- Over the past 18 months, the Company has significantly reduced the number of contractors and full-time employees through a voluntary redundancy and early retirement programme, to enhance efficiency and reduce costs in line with lower than planned production volumes.
- We expect that advances, such as our modular based engineering which allows us to use shared systems and components to reduce engineering complexities, will result in cost-saving and model synergies going forward.