Aston Martin (www.astonmartin.com) has reported a £162.8 million pre-tax loss for 2016, up from £128 million the previous year.

The Gaydon-based luxury sports-car maker is still hampered by “legacy problems” — exceptional items including depreciation and amortisation charges relating to “asset write-downs of tooling, IT equipment and capital investment”, plus financing costs. About a third of the loss was down to a paper charge on foreign-currency movements.

However, the firm said that strong demand for its latest car — the £155,000 DB11 — helped to increase its full-year sales by 16% to £593 million, in what CEO Andy Palmer (pictured) described as “a clear signal that Aston Martin has turned a corner”.

Demand for the DB11 meant that the company temporarily went to a three-shift, seven-day system at the end of last year.

Mr Palmer, who joined the 104-year-old business from Nissan two years ago, said: “We are two years into our Second Century turn-round programme, which will see new cars introduced once a year for the next six years.

“Aston Martin has been a great name, but not financially successful for a long time. We’ve cleaned up the balance sheet, and we’re seeing the results of that at the operational level.”

The Second Century plan was launched after a £50 million fall in sales — and big losses — in 2014. As the turn-round gains traction, the company is forecasting that sales will rise to somewhere between £785 million and £815 million in 2017, delivering earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £160-165 million.

Mr Palmer added: “We produced 3,687 cars in 2016 and EBITDA was at an all-time high of £101 million; the previous high was £92 million in a year when we made 7,200 cars, so we’ve doubled the efficiency of the business.

“The company is expanding its footprint with a factory in St Athan, Wales, which will employ a further 750 people to produce the DBX, and this has the potential to double capacity.”

The company, which is owned by Kuwaiti and Italian private-equity funds, aims to be “the Ferrari of the UK”, Mr Palmer said.