Maserati foresees sales of its cars being flat this year, having lost around 40 percent year-on-year during 2009 compared to 2008, according to CEO Harald J Wester (above, at last year's Geneva Motor Show); the Trident is however expecting to turn in an operating profit for the year ended.

Maserati, one of the biggest carmaking losers during the economic recession, is expecting to see sales of its luxury sports cars being flat this year, having lost around 40 percent year-on-year during 2009 compared to 2008, according to CEO Harald J Wester. The Trident is however expecting to turn in an operating profit for the year just ended.

"We need to be prepared to become significantly more profitable in 2010 with a sales level on par with that of 2009," Wester told Auto Motor und Sport in an interview with the German publication published last week.

The arrival of the new convertible version of the GranTurismo, called the GranCabrio, will boost the brand's sales next year as it rolls out across the globe. Last week it was announced that the GranCabrio would arrive in the showrooms in Australia and New Zealand next month, and it is due to begin deliveries in the UK during April. With strong continuing demand for the GranTurismo, the convertible will be taking up some slack due to sliding sales for the Quattroporte. Introduced in 2003, the luxury flagship sedan has recently found itself crowded in the market place by the arrival of a string of rivals led out by the Porsche Panamera.

Wester, whose main position is as the Chief Technical Officer of the Fiat Group, has been CEO of the Maserati division since replacing the outgoing Roberto Ronchi a year-and-a-half ago. Wester has also held responsiblity for another of the Group's niche divisions, Fiat's Abarth sport car unit, since January 2009. He is however confident that the Trident can post an operating profit for the year 2009 despite the huge drop in sales, helped by reducing significant costs by chopped staff numbers by 20 percent at the end of 2008. "By the end of August we had a positive operating result of 6 million euros," Wester said in the interview. "We will be profitable for the year as a whole as well."