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If they manufacture the parts in India and assemble in Austria, nobody would know, the frame's VIN number would still identify the bike as Austrian.
Brother, we are already at that point.
We've never knew where KTM motocross parts were made, only where the bikes were assembled.
KTM also "manufactured" bikes in China with CFMoto, no media were ever allowed inside their factory, so the bikes and parts made there were never disclosed.
That's a completely different company than the motorcycle company that was split off and sold during the 1991 bankruptcy.
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Who cares, this Bajaj cunt is definitely golden… at the expense of blue collar workers…
In term of who is and isn’t blue collar from his perspective, we don’t know… imo the way he talks, it seems like anyone that isn’t actually building the bikes to sell to customers is blue collar — the 1 in 5:1 — if Eli Tomac is a Blue Collar employee then why is he paid literally 10,000 times more than his ideal blue collar worker (an Indian worker, working 13hrs a day 6 days a week)?
It seems clear from his POV anyone in marketting is white collar 100% — even RnD… is engineering and design white collar? Definitely….
The only thing that gives me hope in that interview is that he wants to revitalize the ‘brand’ and it’s really a question of what he thinks the ‘brand’ means… is it sales? Profit? Or actually that semi intangible marketplace/customer opinion sort of thing… what makes a brand a brand? What makes the brand of KTM a brand???
Weird how many ‘motocross fans’ downvote you for standing up for blue collar workers…
No downvote from me, I’m 100% on the side of blue collar/hands on workers. I’m pissed that KTM management got so arrogant and bloated that they lost the company. The idea that 1000 blue collar workers could bolt together enough bikes to support 5000 managers is comical.. and the management class usually makes substantially more money than the line workers..
They definitely lost their way and began reading their own press. That being said, I would guess that 5000 number includes a lot of pretty key engineers, race team personnel, mechanics, etc. Too many managers no doubt, but without innovation and pushing the R&D envelope on-road and off, the company stagnates over time and withers up and dies. There has to be some reasonable middle ground (along with way more accountability for the fiscal management of the company). I was shaking my head when they built that $50M headquarters in SoCal....it just seemed so excessive....
I was always excited about the racing. However, from a business perspective, it became obvious that they were selling an unattainable dream to venture capitalists. When they started buying all the labels and basically selling one bike under different plastics, it became obvious there was no value in these acquisitions. This is a classic venture mining technique which always leads to a crash. The run is fun, but sooner or later they want their money.
Yet the problem was ‘producing and overproducing after the spike subsided’ — which means they had more than enough bike builder to build (literally) more than enough bikes.
and when he talks about producing bikes in India he says ‘European work culture is to blame, they get paid too much and they work too few hours compared to India’ and then says ‘if manufacturing is moved out of Austria to India or where ever the impact will be benign (whatever the fuck that means)’. So he is clearly referring to Blue Collar work culture because that’s what he is pitching at moving out of Austria, right away…
He’s anti working class scum. And the fact the moto industry just accepts this anti working class scumbaggery without question is so fucked…
The anti union Epstein class is killing everything we love about western society.
If KTM just received a new loan for additional capital to refinance debt, if it pays back Bajaj will they not own any portion of KTM
I interpretted that as him being anti- European working class, not anti-Indian working class. He is perhaps ethnocentric, and proud of his own country men's abilities compared to Euros. By KTM's example compared to the recent financial success of Indian motorcycle makers he has some reasons to believe that. Without hard working Indians generating income for Bajaj, KTM would be no more.
Yeah BAJAJ & the Indians are genius.
KTM built themselves from nothing into a world beater. Take away the 2 Billion for MV Agusta combined the post-COVID drop in everything and KTM would have been fine.
India needs to worry more about building toilets so 90% of its people don’t #2 in the street.
So you think 90 percent of people n india chit n the street??
Boy.... your ego/narcissism is off the chart... ever wonder why you are a pos?? Now u know
Maybe you should learn a little before you type....
Of course he's not anti Indian working class. He can work Indians 100 hours a week for peanuts. Can't do that in Austria.
Pierer bought KTM bicycles back (If I remember correctly) and he bought also FELT bicycles, what has/had a horrible reputation after the Wout van Aert trial (he terminated his contract because he didn't wanted to ride a FELT anymore), also the crash at the World TT from Chloe Dygert when her FELT started to wobbling and flexing around wasn't great for their reputation. So the KTM Group bought a bicycles company when that market is very difficult and they bought a brand (two brands with KTM bicycles and FELT) that didn't had the best reputation. On top of that they also started to make E-MTB' with Husqvarna and GASGAS. Weird!
Pierer never bought KTM bicycles back.
BP
Pit Row
KTM is 100% owned by Bajaj already.
BP
KTM neither bought for, invested in, nor lost 2 billion in MV Agusta.
AFA the sales drop post COVID, the only industry person on the planet who did not see it coming was Pierer.
And he still forced an irresponsible amount of overproduction.
They went out because they spent too much, borrowed too much, and the banks started calling in their loans. Not because of a sales drop.
BP
Technically, Bajaj Auto owns 74.9% of Bajaj Mobility AG (of which KTM AG is a wholly owned company) 😉
It is a global economy friend, who makes your sneakers, TV, etc.. Maybe if somebody totally uneducated half a world away can do your same job for 100 hours a week you aren't worth 80k a year plus bennys for 40 hours. Because it's not fair?
That's called a race to the bottom. Different wages in different countries based on their costs of living, and availability of labor. It's not about who is worth what amount.
So when you hire somebody to work on your house, yard, car, or whatever do you try to find the most expensive person to do it that will spend the least amount of time trying to finish the project? Aren't people in less developed countries worthy of working towards developing a middle class and growing their economies for future generations just like our fore fathers did for us, and Europes, Japans, South Korea...
PMG bought felt in 2021, they didn’t make anything they just rebranded tawaiin frames. The first gen husky E bike actually rips too. The bike given to customers with a new dirt bike was junk. The guys who own UNNO bikes now own felt, they bought it last year. KTM has nothing to do with bicycles now. KTM bicycles is also a completely different company then the ktm we think of
When your job gets outsourced to someone in another counrty making 1/10th what you do, does that mean you weren't worth what you were getting paid?
Can you survive in your area on the wages made by someone doing your job in India? I'd bet you can't
Bajaj/KTM stock still in the cellar.
Yes, it probably does mean I wasn't worth what I was getting paid. I don't worry about somebody from India doing my job, they can't. I chose wisely for now, despite myself.
Correct.
Lol....all it means is that you don't live in a country with 1.5 billion people in it. That's why labor and lives are cheap over there....the labor market is enormous.
Post a reply to: BAJAJ comments on KTM missmanagement