Rolls-Royce
- Rolls-Royce has opened its first U.S. "Private Office," a secret VIP design studio for ultra-wealthy clients who want highly personalized cars.
- It's central to the fabled British automaker's new strategy of growing sales and profits from selling more customized, higher-priced vehicles rather than boosting production.
- Once select customers order a car from a dealer, they can go to the Private Office to work with a designer to create an entirely personalized car.
Rolls-Royce has opened its first U.S. "Private Office," a secret VIP design studio for ultra-wealthy clients who want highly personalized cars.
The Private Office, in Manhattan's trendy Meatpacking District, is central to the fabled British automaker's new strategy of growing sales and profits from selling more customized, higher-priced vehicles rather than boosting production. Rolls-Royce produced 6,032 cars last year, less than half the production of Ferrari, yet continues to generate strong profit growth for its parent company BMW.
While Rolls-Royce customers have been customizing their rides for decades, the Private Office brings the concept of a personalized Rolls to a whole new level. Once select customers order a car from a dealer, they can go to the Private Office to work with a designer to create an entirely personalized car — from special paint colors to their favorite fabrics, woods, lighting schemes and other materials.
"They may want the exterior of their Rolls-Royce to match the color of their dog's eyes," said Rolls-Royce CEO Chris Brownridge. "They may want to have interior panels in the car with the mother-of-pearl from their private collection. We can bring those sorts of requests to life through having direct access to the team. And the possibilities really are endless."
Rolls-Royce calls its top level of personalization the "Bespoke" program. Creating a Bespoke Rolls can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the sticker price, which for a Rolls-Royce Phantom is just under $500,000, bringing the total sale price of some cars to more than $1 million.
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The Private Office is reserved for the most complicated — and expensive — Bespoke projects. It's not a dealership and there are no actual cars displayed. To get into the Private Office, customers press a black security screen outside an unmarked building and take a secure elevator to the top floor.
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With its sleek black kitchen, low sofas, a dining table, outdoor terrace, and turntable with stacks of classic rock and jazz vinyl records, the Private Office looks more like a billionaire's pied-a-terre than a car showroom. The only hint that it's a Rolls-Royce facility is a row of shelves along the back wall displaying samples of paint colors, threads, leathers, metals and a row of the famous "Spirit of Ecstasy" hood ornaments in different finishes.
The New York Private Office is the company's third worldwide, following Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which opened in 2022, and Shanghai in 2023. The company is about to open its fourth, in Seoul, Korea.
The idea, Brownridge says, is to bring the expertise and design capability of its Goodwood, U.K., factory to clients around the world. That's especially important as client requests become more unusual and complex.
One Rolls-Royce client wanted a car inspired by flowers. The Rolls team created an extended-wheelbase Phantom with a headliner covered with more than 1 million embroidered roses. Another client who loves Hawaii and has a favorite rocking chair made of rare Koa wood wanted a Koa-themed Rolls. Since Koa wood is protected in Hawaii, only dead or naturally fallen Koa trees can be harvested. Rolls spent three years waiting and hunting for the right tree, then built a Koa Phantom, with the wood used on the dashboard, center console and doors. The company even made a matching picnic hamper and table. The whole package took more than 500 hours to create.
"A lot of these clients would never, ever sell their cars," Brownridge said. "It's so personal and it means to much to them."
To keep up with the surging demand for custom cars, Rolls-Royce is also expanding its Bespoke workshops in Goodwood. Brownridge said the goal isn't to produce more cars, but to produce higher-value, more customized cars.
"As our commissions have become more sophisticated, our business has become more successful," Brownridge said. "Our mission is really to create value for our shareholder, to create value for our retail partners, but most importantly, to create value for our clients. Because when you produce a masterpiece for them, it means so much more than just a motorcar. I often say that the fact that they have four wheels is almost a nice-to-have, because they really are a work of art."
Brownridge said when customers are building their special Rolls-Royces, they not only visit the factory in Goodwood, but they also get to know the paint shop specialists, the woodworkers, the embroidery experts and other members of the team.
"Every single client that I've met, they all say, what makes Rolls Royce Special is that they feel that they are part of a family," he said. "They're not customers to us, they're part of Rolls Royce. Many of our clients will come to Goodwood, and they will know the people that are making their cars. It's not just the personal connection to the motorcar. It's the personal connection to the whole team who are producing these magnificent things."
