Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128233
bore and stroke is different - it's totally adjusted to the need s of end uro. Where do es KT M see t wo- strok es fitting in in t he futu re - if at all? Do yo u t hink th is type of engi ne has a futu re , particu la rly after 2007 and the adv ent of Euro 3 em issions norms? We think the tw o-stroke [will] surv ive, and in the long term - but only in closed course offroad rac ing sectors , like motocross , enduro , hare scrambles and so on . In these sectors I think the two -stroke w ill survive, an d we will conti nue t o develop new models for them . T he i s su e whi ch ho vers over this i s em is sions. Do you think you w ill be able to sell any k ind of motorcycle fitted wi t h a car buretor after 2007 , even a f our- st ro k e li k e th e 950 Adven ture? From 2007 onward, it's clear that all our fourstrokes must be f ue l-i nje c ted, even th e motoc ross mode ls. Okay , in closed course racing you don't have to worry about Eu ro 3 and emissio ns - bu t soo ne r or later they m ust all have it. One off-road sector which KTM st ill hasn 't entered is trials. Any plans to do this yet ? Yes, we ha d some id eas, bu t as real ists we had suc h a big growth rate over the past two ye ar s that we had to refocus, and th is went off the table for the time being . Less is be tter than t oo much that's my own personal learning cu rve, whi ch I'm try in g to k eep to! Wouldn 't a sim ple sol ution to th is be to pu rchase Beta , es pecially since you already work with it so close ly as an eng ine supplier f or all y our SOc c t hr ough 8Scc t o 10 Scc Spo rtm inic ycle KTM models? Yes, tha t would be a good plan, especia ll y as Beta 's wor k in g on a tria l end uro bik e with o ur 250 engine - a cr o ss between th e two kinds of bike th at would be ver y suit able fo r th e KTM range! But it' s sti ll a famil y -owned b us in ess , and we have a very close relationship with the Bianchi family, wh o seem to be quit e happy w ith the wa y things are at present. Let's just say it ca n h appen , that KTM acquires Beta - but right now , it' s not in the plan ! A company you did bu y a whil e back w a s Husaberg , which has now in th e past ye ar eventually been moved here to Austria from Sweden . Why did you do this? It was all to do w ith q uality . It' s q uit e hard to run a sma ll m otorcy cle manufa cturer up in Sweden to the same level as we hav e here, especia lly aft er all th e big inve stments we m ad e here in Ma ttighofen in the past couple o f ye ars . Sec on dl y , it's about lin k ing development m or e cl o sely - Hu saberg will still be the means for us to tr y out new techn ol ogy and new ideas befo re adapti ng th em o n th e who le KTM line as we did wi th the c o unterbal ancer s, fo r examp le. They we re tried first o n Hu sabe rg , then on ly later came to KTM models . We see a strong future fo r a bl ue and yellow range of bi kes wi th a m ore sp ec ia list ch aracter than the orange and black ones. KTM has made a significant investment over the past couple of year s, with the new eng ine plant and the R&D Center, How much have you ploughed back int o the company from all the profits y o u must be making w ith your rampant growth? I can te ll you that for th e last fi scal year endi ng on Sep tem ber 1st. we invested Eu ro 28 million ($3 1.36 mi llion ) overall , in clud in g the new struc tures, equ ipp ing them wi th machi ne ry, and all the ongoing work on new mode ls. That's a big am ount - and in t ota l sin ce 1999 wh en we built th e new fa c to ry, we'v e in vest ed altog ether Euro 130 m illi on ($1 4 5. 6 million ) . It 's t he only w ay to opera te - if yo u're af rai d to invest , yo u won 't get the returns. Given t hat ou have suc h a huge a m o unt o f money rid ing on KT M ' s futu re, is it a co nc ern t o yo u th at 3 0 pe rcent of your productio n shou ld be headed f or j us t one country, the USA, which ri gh t now is in a state of flux econo mically? Yes, that' s right - it is a concern , w hich is w hy in the past yea r we enlarged the Euro pean portion of o ur sal es quite a lo t. Two years ago we had 34 per cent of our turnover in U .S. dolla rs; now it' s 30 percent, an d for th e new fis ca l year, we're p lanning around 26 p erc ent. T og ether wi th our pl an ned 20 percent increase in pr oduction to 84 ,000 bikes in the co ming 12 months , this m eans we'll be flatt en ing out in th e States but focus ing o n t he right m odels to in crease o ur market share. But we now have eight d ir ect E u r o p e a n su bsi d i a rie s , in France , Great Br it ain , German y , etc. , whe re we have our o wn dis tribution supplied d ir ectly from M attigh of en , and in the next tw o years we will fo cu s o n doing the same in Poland , Czech Republic , Hunga ry and Sloven ia, th e ke y new countries in Eastern Europe that will be j oini ng the Euro pean Un ion . A ustria has a long hist ory of bei ng the gateway to E aste rn Eu rope , so we hav e a strong rel at io n sh ip with th e fo rmer commu nist co untries and are alr eady sell ing we ll in ma ny of them - esp ecia lly as th ey have a deep off-r oad heritag e and an active m oto r cycl e cul tu re. Our strategy is to exp and our activities very much in East ern Europe in the c om ing years it' s our ba ckyard , and we m ust take advantage of that! Eventuall y , we are looking at the big one, Russia - but we believ e it will take at least an oth er two years befo re a custo mer gro up is available there that is big eno ugh to justify all th e investm ent needed , so fir st we wi ll co nce ntr ate o n th e closer co untrie s with wh ic h we al ready ha ve a close hist ori c al relationship. Th en , after that - let' s m o ve fo rw ard to Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus and the Ukrain e, and then Russia. But we have a big future potential in East ern Europ e th at w e will b e c u lt iv ati ng close ly , with out lo sing sig ht of our ma in presen t m ar k et , the U.S. Ap rilia will be launching it s new off-road range at t he M il an S how later this m o nth , Ho w do yo u se e it as a fut ure rival? Sin c e tw o yea rs ago we learn ed from April ia that it will be co m ing back to th e off-road sector, and I' m co nv inced it has the c apabili ty to do very well in th at segm ent , so th is will be a bi g challenge fo r us but a good one. I'm looking forward to th e co m peti ti on - it 's the best way to b ring every t hing forward and improve the p rod uct. Sp ea king of Ita lian ri vals, is it tru e Piaggio ap proac hed you to team up with it , to give it cue the d irtbike pro duct it so bad ly needs? Oh , it' s so ni ce down in Italy - you can have a great v aca t io n th ere ; the food is so good ; th e wine is excellent; it 's suc h a nice place to visit. Bu t to d o bus in ess in Italy is impossibl e - rea ll y ! We spoke many times with Piaggio about this, but since on e or two years ago we stopped with everything both sides realized it won't work . How about Ducati, though , which has American management and has been se eking for some t ime to ent er the off-road market, without success? Did KTM discuss any potential link with it? F or man y y e a r s we t al ke d a b o u t this w ith Ducatl, whe re we have many friendships and a good relationship w i th each other. But since two years ago, I think we both rea lized what we ar e doing with our brand makes us rivals in th e future, and th e Duke 990 is just the first of seve ral futu re KTM m od els wh ich w ill be dire ctly co m peting with Duc at \. So th er e' s no chance any m o re like there was in t he past for us to work together. Okay - but Ha rley -Da vidson has no such cr os sover you don 't make a cruiser , and it doesn 't make a dirtbike! Did your talks with Harley since resu m e on distributing KTM off-road bikes through its dealers in the USA, as I'm reliably informed did take place before? Ha rley is a very big, successful co m pany , and if it decides it w ants t o d istri bute KTM pr odu cts , then I think its only co urse wo uld be to buy us 100 percent - and tha t hasn 't happened! I like m y wo rk; I like th e business; we 're happy with what we' re doing; we have so much planned for the future - I th ink I'm satisfied with th e way th ings are right now. H ow do you see KTM fi ve y ear s from now m ore ba lanced toward r oad bikes , or still primarily an off-road manufacturer? In terms of a five-year plan, we want to get the rec og n it io n and earn th e sales as a streetbik e manufacturer , within th e sporting sec tor. Secondly , we want to kee p that stro ng m ark et share in the offroad sector, where from th e 50 cc Sp ortminicycle up to th e 950 Adventure , we have the co m plete range of bikes - this is still o ur ma in fo cus, and it will be very important for us to develop a very com petiti ve new sing le -c y li nde r race eng ine that will allow us to t ak e ove r th e lead o nc e again in off -road rac ing, which is the bas is tha t o ur success grows fro m . We will stick with the two-stroke fo r clos ed course co m petit io n and within th e next five years we will devel op a fu ll ra ng e o f m o d e l s p o w er ed b y the V - t win e ng i ne , t opped by th e RC8 Superbik e. I think that's qu it e eno ug h to kee p us bu sy! eN > I e n e _ S • SEPTEMBER 24, 2 003 25