[UPDATE, December 12, 2024: Seeking to answer what were undoubtedly a slew of questions about its future at once, MV Agusta Motors sought to clarify where it's been, where it currently stands, and where it's going in a press release.
MV says that from 2023 to 2024, it's retained 60 percent of MV's management, as well as added new professionals and specialists to the mix. "This strategy has made MV Agusta completely independent in all its operations," it states in the plainest possible wording.
Furthermore, it adds that all design, prototyping, and production take place in Varese and nowhere else; the same, it says, is true of sales, after-sales, marketing, and customer service. So far in 2024, it says that it's sold 4,000 bikes, which it says represents a 116 percent increase over the previous year's sales.
It goes on to reiterate that while motorcycles and parts may have been stored in warehouses in Austria, all bikes and parts originate from and are produced exclusively in Varese. Not Austria. Additionally, warehouses that may store MV-produced parts and bikes are located in other geographic regions, which makes sense given that it's an international OEM.
I'll quote one other paragraph verbatim, so you can see MV's language here:
"The people who made these results possible will remain in Varese, and nothing will change regarding business operations, as the ownership has never interfered with them," it reads.
Instead, what's currently in play right now in negotiations with KTM is the shareholding structure of MV Agusta, as well as how that might affect the future corporate structure of the company. But overall, MV wants to tell people that it's doing well on its own, in Varese, and that it intends to continue growing right there, and nowhere else. It's proudly made in Italy, and that's where it plans to stay.]
Original piece follows.
The past few months have likely been a nightmare for KTM, and one that the company's higher-ups probably wish they could wake up from right about now. From camshaft woes to financial drama, it's been a deeply unfun roller coaster ride for the mega European manufacturer.
And now, we have another loop-de-loop in this analogy, as it seems that MV Agusta is about to possibly get off the ride early.
On December 9, 2024, trade unions met with KTM representatives in the Confindustria Varese to discuss current concerns. At this meeting, the regional branch of the CV, CISL dei Laghi, reports that KTM reps stated that MV Agusta is "no longer considered a strategic asset."
What does this mean? Apparently, it means that talks are already underway to return all of MV Agusta's production back to MV Agusta headquarters in Varese. Under the current agreement, this process should take around 90 days to complete. The current timeline sees final implementation around March 31, 2025.
During the first months of 2025, KTM plans to sell down the stock of MV Agustas that are currently sitting in Austria, but won't produce any more there. Once that's achieved, MV Agusta will have to rely on the bikes it can produce and sell from the factory in Varese, but not create additional stock in the warehouse in Austria.
CISL goes on to say that the 13-month salary agreement for MV Agusta workers won't be affected and is not up for negotiation, and adds that if financial problems arise, "any cuts would start with management." Which is probably good, because management likely aren't the ones building the bikes.
Currently, around 2,000 MV Agusta motorcycles sit unsold, waiting for new owners. MV Agusta plans to begin its 2025 production run around mid-March, with plans to make around 3,000 motorcycles. Heavy emphasis is being placed on training and learning from past mistakes to move forward with accelerating the three-year MV Agusta development plan coordinated with KTM.
There's also a tiny little line tucked in near the end of this announcement from CISL dei Laghi, saying that MV plans to manage redundancies in its workforce on a voluntary basis, but also adding that due to the current financial situation, there will be no money to sweeten the exit of anyone who leaves.
It's not clear how many redundancies are expected, and I would imagine I'm not the only one wondering how much further the workforce can be cut after KTM already applied the knife soon after acquiring its controlling interest in MV in the first place.
Now, what follows is purely armchair thinking, so please acknowledge it as such. But let's say you've got two factories, and you decide more bikes are going to be made in one factory than the other. And let's say they're in two completely different locations, so it's not like you're shuttling workers from one to the other, like a roving band of expert wrenches who go where they're needed.
And let's say that plans change. So, for whatever reason you like, you end up shifting production away from Factory A and back to Factory B. Now more bikes are being made at Factory B than you initially had planned.
Assuming that you'd kept staffing at an appropriate level at both Factory A and Factory B throughout these processes, wouldn't that change imply that you'd need more workers at Factory B, not fewer? More highly technical production in a facility should equal more skilled hands on deck, right?
It's not at all clear what happens here, but here's hoping this gives MV Agusta the freedom it needs to keep fighting on its own terms. I mean, we're talking about a company that survived a fraught two-year acquisition by Harley in the early 2000s. This can't be how it goes out, can it?
We reached out to our contact at MV Agusta for further clarification and we'll update this post once we hear back.
