Husqvarna Motorcycles has announced a return to international road racing and the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Moto3 class where they will officially support the Max Racing Team. Owned by four-times 250 cc World Champion Max Biaggi, and under the management of experienced German former racer Peter Öttl, the team will field Romano Fenati and Alonso Lopez in the 2020 season on the new Husqvarna FR 250 GP.
British distributor Bickers has added distribution of NOCO battery chargers and jump packs. The NOCO boost range features five lithium-based jump packs; there are also five battery trickle chargers available, plus an accessory range that includes extension cables, adaptors, connectors and protective cases. Historically, NOCO's origins are with the two-step NCP2 "No Corrosion Product" - a battery corrosion preventative invented by Joseph Henry Nook in 1914.
Michelin has signed an agreement to acquire 80% of PT Multistrada Arah Sarana TBK ("Multistrada"), a tyre manufacturer based in Indonesia. Michelin will pay USD 439 m for their controlling stake. With a production capacity of more than 180 thousand tons (i.e., 11 million passenger car tyres, 9 million two-wheel tyres and 250 thousand truck tyres), Multistrada generated net sales of USD 281 million in 2017. With this transaction, Michelin will strengthen its presence in the highly promising but local-production dominated Indonesian market by acquiring a very competitive local plant with good quality facilities and immediately available production capacity.
Husqvarna has announced that its official MX2 team - the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing MX2 team - is to be managed from 2020 onwards by the Belgian Nestaan-MX team. Owned by Kay Hennekens, Nestaan-MX has been involved in Motocross World Championship competition for many years and will operate from a new workshop in Lommel, Belgium. The team will field three riders in 2020, racing on FC 250 machinery.
DMC Group in the UK has won Ducati's 'Dealer of the Year' award for Europe and Africa - becoming the first British dealer to pick up the accolade. In front of an audience that included 487 dealers and importers from 71 countries, the award was accepted by Chris Booth, Managing Director of DMC - the group has franchises in Manchester, Stoke, Preston and Worcester.
The KSR Group (Christian and Michael Kirschenhofer) has completed the second phase of an expansion plan at its new corporate headquarters at Gedersdorf in Austria, with the addition of around 2,200 sq m, including an in-house design studio for its PTW brands - including Malaguti, Brixton, Lambretta and KSR Moto. KSR opened the first phase of its new HQ in April 2017; their revenues are said to have grown by 50% in two years from 2016 and are expected to have grown by the same again in the 2018/2019 period.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MNW
