BMW has announced a positive start to the year, with its first-quarter results showing a significant improvement compared to the same period last year.

The vehicle manufacturer witnessed an annual 3.9 per cent increase in group revenues to €18.24 billion (£14.95 billion) during the first three months of the year, while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew by 2.6 per cent to €2.09 billion.

Group profits before tax were up annually by 8.1 per cent to €2.17 billion and overall net profits rose by 11.4 per cent to €1.46 billion.

This positive trend in financial performance was built upon the company's large-scale increase in the number of units delivered to customers across the globe by its three major brands – BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce – with a total of 487,024 units delivered during the first three months of 2014 (up 8.7 per cent on Q1 2013).

It has also been a positive 12 months in terms of increasing labour requirements for the firm, with the manufacturer expanding its global workforce by 4.6 per cent since the end of March 2013 to more than 111,000 employees.

Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the board of management at BMW, commented: "The BMW Group has made a strong start to the current financial year with new record first-quarter figures for sales volume and profit before tax.

"The 9.5 per cent EBIT margin recorded by the automotive segment keeps us firmly within the upper range of eight to ten per cent that we wish to attain."

Overall, BMW remains on track to achieve both its financial and manufacturing targets for 2014, with both segments of the business expected to achieve record levels in 2013, despite the ongoing challenges of the global automotive market.

"We are aiming for a new record group profit before tax figure, which will be significantly higher than in the previous year", Mr Reithofer concluded.

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