Lamborghini CEO sees 5 pct/yr output growth

Production at Italy's sports car maker Lamborghini, a unit of Volkswagen's Audi, is already fully booked for 2008 and will not be increased due to demand, Auto Motor und Sport reported. "We are concentrating on a healthy and controlled growth of roughly 5 percent per year," Chief Executive Stefan Winkelmann said in an interview to be published on Thursday.

Sales increased as forecast to some 2,400 sports cars last year from 2,087 in 2006, he said, adding that the group's pretax profit margin of 10.4 percent in the first half of 2007 did not contract in the second half. "Our first half profit was 26.4 million euros ($39.0 million) and we booked a double-digit million euro amount in the second half as well," he continued.