INTERVIEW
KTM'S STEFAN PIERER: PART II
AND WHAT
ABOUT HUSKY?
Part two of our interview with
KTM boss Stefan Pierer
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KTM AG
L
ast week we began our two-part
interview with KTM President/CEO
Stefan Pierer. This week the man
many consider the most powerful in European motorcycling discusses the purchase of Husqvarna and more…
If you missed part one, you can read that
by clicking on the following link: http://
cyclenews.uberflip.com/i/120650
Well, talking about the dirt, was
2012 KTM's most successful year
ever in off-road competition?
Yes, it's been incredible! It was our
best year ever in racing, and whatever we
do, this will still remain one of the most
important things we do at KTM, because
off-road is where we're coming from, it's
our heritage. We won both Motocross
World Championships, we won the AMA
outdoor title, we finished on the podium
in AMA Supercross for the first-time ever,
and we won all the Enduro World Championships – and one of them with Husa-
berg, which was nice. So pretty much a
clean sweep. And this year already for the
first time we won both classes the same
day in AMA Supercross, at Anaheim - that
was an historic achievement.
However, even though KTM was
so successful in off-road competition
last year, the off-road market has declined, hasn't it? Have your off-road
sales flattened out?
Yes, they have. In some countries
they have declined, but lucky enough we
have had remarkable growth in the USA
and Australia, and this has almost compensated for what we lost in Europe. In
the USA we're seeing that the market
is stable and we're gaining nice market
share, and we're also doing very well in
Australia - it's an outstanding market for
us, and South Africa, too. In the USA we
had a percentage increase of 30 percent
in sales, and Australia was not less than
that. But on the other hand in Italy, which
was a really big market for us, we lost 80
percent. In some countries together with
Husaberg we now have more than 70
percent market share, so there is limited
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