On January 1, 2024, Yamaha Motor Europe welcomed its new president and CEO, Olivier Prevost. Set to fill in the shoes of Eric de Seynes, Prevost has his work cut out for him, as Yamaha remains a force to be reckoned with in the ever-changing mobility landscape. As it would turn out, developments are quick under Prevost’s leadership, as Yamaha has just renamed one of its large production facilities in France to Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe (YMME).
The production facility was previously referred to as MBK Industrie S.A.S., and has been a wholly owned Yamaha subsidiary all the way back since 1986. With MBK now known as YMME, it effectively became Yamaha’s European production headquarters. According to Yamaha, this was done to signify its commitment to developing localized European manufacturing so as to better serve key markets in the region.
In Yamaha’s official press release, Olivier Prevost stated, “It is with a lot of emotion that I see the evolution of MBK Industrie into Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe. I started my career at MBK 30 years ago and all these years, I have been paying special attention to MBK. The operations and product line-up have been continuously evolving to reach today a high level of excellence allowing production of Yamaha flagship models in this factory. This has been possible with the involvement and efforts of all the employees during the last 40 years. I would like to express my appreciation and to thank all of them. Looking forward, it became clear that it is now time to change the name to Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe.”
He added that YMME will serve as a hub for innovation when it comes to Yamaha’s products for the European market, “More than a symbolic move, it is a clear recognition for the company within the Yamaha Motor Group and it will support to embrace a wider range of Yamaha products. Finally, as an ex-MBK employee, I am very proud to say to my YMME colleagues that we are finally all ‘Yamaha employees’ now. Let’s continue to move forward using our Yamaha local manufacturing as a competitive and sustainable advantage!”
With mobility demands continuously changing due to a myriad of variables all across Europe, Yamaha is expected to diversify its product portfolio in the near future. More than likely, apart from the name change, YMME will also be upgraded to produce models like the Yamaha Tenere 700 and XMAX more efficiently, as well as cater to the brand’s growing lineup of electric vehicles such as electric scooters and electric bicycles.
“The re-naming of MBK into Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe is an important recognition of the efforts made by all employees during the last years to transform the company to be able to produce Yamaha flagship models such as the Ténéré 700 family. We continuously benchmark our quality standard and method with our mother factory in Iwata, to be able to achieve similar quality levels. We believe that our facility in Europe will be a key asset for Yamaha in the eMobility to respond to the zero carbon neutrality requirement for local manufacturing,” said Patrice Maciejewski, President of YMME.
