Way back in April, 2022, I sat down with Ural CEO Ilya Khait to talk about the company's struggles with current events and its seemingly shaky future. In amongst discussions of sanctions and shipping woes, Khait talked about plans to open a new production facility outside of Russia. It turns out that plans for that move were already in motion, and in late July, the company announced the opening of a shiny new production facility in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan. Since I'm the Senior Ural Correspondent around these parts, I contacted Ural to ask about the new facility.
So, why Petropavlovsk? Located near the border with Russia, the city's population is over half ethnic Russians, and Russian is spoken as a first language by most citizens. It has a strong industrial base with established infrastructure and direct access to a major rail line. Local industrial laborers are experienced and competent—although not with motorcycles, the city's factories currently churn out agricultural equipment and industrial machinery. All these benefits made Petropavlovsk ideal.
