INTERVIEW
MV AGUSTA'S GIOVANNI CASTIGLIONI
P94
the water level goes down and filling it with more
water only makes it disappear faster. So we said
forget about cash for the moment, we need to
change the structure of MV so we don't hurt our-
selves fatally. I don't want to say the new manage-
ment made a mistake—nobody did, because we
made a fantastic product range as a result of our
investment. It was just that sales were not as good
as we expected because our customers were
focusing on the high-end premium products, and
that's a niche market. So even with a broad range
of bikes priced for mainstream sales, we still sold
mainly to specific clients who are looking for top-
end products. So what we did was to promptly re-
structure the company to sell less, but sell better.
So what changed?
What changed is that we started our restruc-
turing plan in December 2015, and we restruc-
tured first of all MV's marketing strategy, then the
number of sales—so selling below the customer
demand for our products, which means less than
5000 units a year.
Given that your specific demand is around
7000 units a year?
Exactly, below demand—sell less but sell bet-
ter, focus on top-end quality targeting the super-
premium market where margins are also better.
There's a lot of interest in such a product—just
look at Harley Davidson's success in selling their
CVO bikes at between $30-50,000 each. Com-
panies like Ducati and Triumph are moving into a
mass market, so MV Agusta is the only remaining
solely top-end manufacturer.
Do you think the reason for your problems
was the market wasn't ready to spend the
extra sum that was needed to buy an MV
Agusta compared to a three-cylinder Yamaha
or a Triumph, or do you think it was that your
products were too exaggerated in technology
or styling?
MV Agusta calls
Schiranna, on
the outskirts of
Varese, home.
