Cycle News

INTERVIEW P70 KTM'S STEFAN PIERER: PART II cle industry is different, it's a lot smaller, and you have to be careful where you put every Euro, and you have to make it very lean and efficient. To what extent do you see if there's a problem in Husqvarna selling against KTM? I'm not too worried, because it's an alternative. Look to Triumph - what's the reason for its success? It's an affordable nonJapanese bike with a certain heritage, and it's worked out quite nicely. I don't think that everybody wants to have an orange bike, and we have market shares in some places that are too good, but there are also a lot of people who don't want to buy a Japanese bike, they want to have an alternative, and Husqvarna has a long heritage of the brand, much more than KTM, and a history. Husqvarna essentially invented the modern off-road motorcycle. You're the single most powerful man in European motorcycling - you're the President and CEO of the largest European manufacturer, your company has essentially made a clean sweep of all off-road World Championships as well as a road racing World title, and you've now acquired the most historic off-road manufacturer. What are your feelings about this? Do you feel a sense of responsibility, or elation, or concern for the responsibilities? At one end I think it's emotional, and at the other it's great fun - because we have developed quite a lot throughout a 20-year period, and have done a lot to reanimate the European motorcycle industry which 30 years ago was essentially dead. And I think we can make a good strategy with Husqvarna, there is huge potential, and I think the consolidation of the industry has only just started. Does that mean you're looking for another acquisition? I'm just really happy that now in Europe everybody is talking to each other - it's not like 20 or 30 years ago when everybody was fighting against each other. We've " Final question: looking at where KTM was five years ago when sales slumped and you had this huge loss, compared to where you are now, did you ever envisage that this could happen so successfully? To be honest I didn't expect it to come so well to this extent, but as a racing brand you're used to the fact that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, and what you learn from going racing is never to give up when you crash. Get up, pick your bike up, and try to catch up to the leaders again. And what we never gave up on was development, prod- HUSQVARNA ESSENTIALLY INVENTED THE MODERN OFF-ROAD MOTORCYCLE. " all realized that if you want to survive on a sound basis, then we have to work together and help each other, especially on the supplier basis, but on other things as well, like political interference in the motorcycle industry, and so on. When I started running KTM, I sometimes had some ups and downs with my colleagues in Europe, and I always said to them, let's not fight amongst each other – look, the Japanese brands are dominating more than 60% of the market share, let's focus on that. Each brand should find their brand identity and run on that, and behind the scenes let's work together. - STEFAN PIERER uct development of new models, even all through the crisis. That was the reason that we pulled out of road racing, because doing that you can save 6-7 million Euro immediately, and if you spend that on product development, then you have the means to catch up again. Plus, I also learned to keep focused on the core content of our product, on our ready to race sport motorcycle spirit, and that means producing motorcycles with this core brand content from the entry level to the top end – basically, from the gravel to the grave! CN

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