Luca de Montezemolo transformed Ferrari from a racing company into a luxury company by recognizing that maintaining scarcity and building a pyramid of ever-more-exclusive products is essential to the brand's long-term value.
When Luca returned to Ferrari in the 1990s, he recognized that Enzo never thought of Ferrari as a luxury company. Luca implemented waitlists, presentation ceremonies, custom luggage, and the pyramid structure of range/special series/Icona/supercars—all borrowed from studying companies like Hermès. ✦ AI generated
David Rosenthal · Acquired · 2026-04-14 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 198:55
Luca came from a very different background and life experience than Enzo. Luca is the one who realized that Ferrari is a luxury company. To Enzo, Ferrari was a racing company that sold a connection to that to its clients. And Enzo was a marketing genius and he came up with the prancing horse and the red and the myth of Enzo. But you couldn't talk to Enzo about how Hermes was managing its business. You know, Enzo had no idea what Jean Louis Duma was doing over in Paris. Luca knew exactly what Jean Louis Duma was doing over in Paris. Luca is the one who institutes waitlists. Luca is the one who institutes presentation ceremonies when your car is delivered. Luca is the one who institutes custom luxury luggage that comes perfectly fitted to your Ferrari. Luca institutes the luxury strategy at Ferrari.
verbatim transcript · starts at 198:55
199:07Toyota that same kind of range 18 to 21%. Toyota is exceptionally well-run. Isn't that amazing that Toyota generates on the order of three times as much gross margin per car that rolls off the line compared to Ford? >> Yeah, that is incredible. >> Ferrari is 50% gross margins. That is a luxury brand. >> And as you were pointing out earlier, that's average. >> Yes, >> the supercars and the Icona cars are way
199:37above 50% gross margins. I get the sense the range is like 30ish% maybe 35% and then the supercars are in the 80 to 90% gross margin range. >> So it is worth pointing out here this average 50% gross margin you might say oh it's a luxury brand which is the assertion I'm making. They do have to make a bunch of complex expensive giant hunks of metal and safety and engineer
200:03the absolute crap out of them and truly innovate. So when you look at companies that don't have to do that, LVMH is 66% and Hermes is 71%. So I mean there exists a category when you don't have to do all of that hard engineering work where you know it's a it's a good business just selling handbags. >> Yep. Yep. And this is where the technology element of Ferrari comes in
200:30that doesn't apply to many of the other luxury companies. >> Yep. But still, Ferrari is able to sell their cars for twice what it costs them to make. Whereas, if BMW spent a hundred bucks to make a car, they only get to sell it for $115. So, perhaps more interesting though than all of this than the gross profit percent is the gross profit absolute dollars. The profit per
200:52car average exceeded $170,000. That is more than the entire retail price of your average luxury sedan. And even Porsche would need to sell six cars to equal the profit dollars that come from a single average Ferrari. Wow. That is truly astonishing. >> There's so many different ways to slice this. It's fun. >> God. I mean, what other company or products can you think of that has a per