VOL. 56 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 12, 2019 P81
percent of its bikes. Thirty percent
is a lot, but we think we can bring
that to 40 percent in Asia, so
we're setting up our own opera-
tion in India and China, where
we're tripling sales right now.
In terms of the sales network,
except in North America, we're
actually aiming to reduce the cur-
rent number of dealers in order to
allow the best ones to expand their
territories, and thus deliver a better
service. We're also going to open
several new MV Agusta mono-
brand stores in key cities around
the world. MV Agusta Moscow
already opened this November—it's
a really good store, and we will ex-
pand there. MV Agusta London is
coming by mid-2019, together with
other six new mono-brand stores
within the next 12 months. This is
part of our plan to reinforce the
service level to our clients through
the introduction of a new inte-
grated system linking MV Agusta,
its network and its supply chain,
in order to reduce the lead time
of spare parts and accessories to
customers.
Does your acquisition of
a controlling interest in MV
Agusta also include Cagiva,
which was the Castiglioni
family brand?
Yes, it's all one company, which
Cagiva is certainly part of. Cagiva
will be the electric brand of the
MV group. Before the end of 2019
you'll see it entering the commut-
Our sales markets are domi-
nated by Italy, Germany, the UK
and France. France is a very good
market for us. We're opening the
largest number of MV Agusta mono-
brand stores in the world in France.
Where are you looking for
MV Agusta sales to expand?
The USA, for us, is unchartered
territory, and I would say that we
have a two-, three- or even four-
fold growth potential in the Ameri-
can market, which is potentially
the world's largest market for MV
Agusta, and in which we're pres-
ently not very well represented—
we've got a lot of work to do in
North America.
Firstly, we have to fix the exist-
ing dealer network, then secondly
to grow that network and to be
present in the largest cities there.
Our objective now is not to grow
just by penetration. It's to grow
by enlargement of the existing
dealers. And the new dealers that
we'll bring on board, they have to
clearly buy into our culture. We
have 23 or 24 U.S. dealers right
now, but we can double or triple
that number very quickly.
But they must be the right deal-
ers—ones that can work with a cli-
ent, can embrace him, can make
him part of the MV community.
There are other key markets that
are underdeveloped for MV, like
Asia, where MV currently sells 30
Formula One World Champion
Lewis Hamilton (right) has been
a formal part of MV's marketing
for a couple of years now and
has his name on machines like
the limited edition LH44 F4.
