China's luxury market can be tough to crack(2)
For Lamborghini, it will overtake Italy as the second biggest market behind the United States in three to five years.
"They love what is coming out of Europe. What is European is something they want to possess," CEO Stephan Winkelmann said.
Watchmaker Hublot, in China since January, plans to open 10 shops there by end-2009. By 2012, it would like to see China its third or fourth market after United States, Europe and Japan. "I think there are a lot of people who comment on China as being pictured as the biggest premium market because they see the growth from a very tiny base to a very large base," said Tom Purces, CEO of British luxury car firm Rolls Royce.
"We went from a handful of cars in China to over 100 cars there last year. That's immense in a very short period ... but I don't believe that that growth will be sustained at that level."
