Cycle News

P32 IN THE WIND EUROFILE: MORE ON PIERER/HUSKY AND KTM BMW Motorrad���s shock sale of its Italian subsidiary Husqvarna to Pierer Industrie AG, the personal holding company of Stefan Pierer, President/CEO of the Germanowned, Italian-based, Swedishborn off-road brand���s key rivals KTM, has aroused all sorts of conspiracy theories, whereas in reality this was only done to speed up the deal at BMW���s request. That���s according to Stefan Pierer himself, in the first one-onone interview he���s given since acquiring Husqvarna. ���This holding company was especially established for this acquisition, but it���s also part of my Pierer GmbH group which controls KTM,��� said Pierer. ���So basically Husqvarna is a part of our existing motorcycle company as a whole, and the reason we used this vehicle to buy it was mainly to do with the speed of the transaction, and secondly not to disturb KTM and its success. We didn���t have much time, because BMW wanted to close the deal very fast ��� you must ask them why!��� So having completed the takeover (subject to EU antitrust approval, which Pierer feels unlikely to be an issue), what are the plans of the most powerful man in European motorcycling for the Husqvarna brand? ���Husqvarna will remain a separate company, and the brand will stay alive ��� that���s the most important thing,��� said Pierer. ���Now we have to look into where the synergies lie with the whole KTM group. I think there���s lots in common between Husaberg and Husqvarna, so we���ll want to keep their Scandinavian roots and bring them closer together especially in distribution, as something different to KTM. If you look back 30 years to when Husqvarna motorcycles were transferred to Italy, a couple of engineers and racers wanted to stay in Sweden and reinvent Husqvarna, so they started the Husaberg brand and developed some nice bikes. That was the reason we took them over in 1995. For KTM, the Husaberg was the first four-stroke singlecylinder competition engine ��� do you remember Joel Smets winning in motocross on one? That was really the 3D touchstone for our most successful KTM motorcycle ��� the single-cylinder KTM Racing four-stroke family, which has since sold more than 250,000 units around the world. ���But Husqvarna wasn���t that successful for the last couple of years - frankly speaking, their offroad competition range is very outdated. The motocross line is non-existent, and the enduro models are rather old, and so for Husqvarna dealers maybe our existing Husaberg models will give them a short-term bridge. I am convinced that the first step we must take is to work to Husqvarna���s traditional strengths, which means immediately developing state-of-the-art enduro and moto- cross lines, and also going back to two-strokes. For me, Husqvarna has a huge competence in Supermoto, so that���s the perfect outlet for the brand - with Supermoto single-cylinders as its core products, I think in the first couple of years we can reach 15,00020,000 units in sales.��� Under BMW ownership, Husqvarna sold 10,751 motorcycles in 2012, a 15.8 percent increase over 2011 generating Euro 65 million in revenues that���s largely attributable to the success of the Nuda twin-cylinder streetbike models. Does Pierer���s purchase of the company spell the end of the road for Husqvarna���s streetbikes, powered by redeveloped BMW twin-and single-cylinder engines? ���For sure I think we will do streetbikes, but I don���t see a big future for the Nuda, because it has a BMW engine,��� he said. ���I offered it to them that maybe after the 2013 model year they could take the 900 parallel-twin engine for their own use, and re-badge it as a BMW, but I don���t know if they will or not. In any case, in 2014 we don���t want to continue with this kind of motorcycle in the Husqvarna range, since our dealers won���t be able to sell or handle it, because it���s based on using a BMW diagnostic system to service it. We���ll shortly stop manufacture of the Nuda - there are a couple of hundred more still on the way for 2013, but the rest

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