KTM Parent Company to Cut Jobs Amid Slowing Sales

Pierer Mobility Group, the parent company of KTM, Husqvarna, and GasGas, and owner of 50.1 per cent of MV Agusta, has announced that, as a result of slowing sales, it will be cutting staff.

The staff cut, which has not been given a specific number by Pierer Mobility Group, comes after a staff expansion that saw KTM double its staff “with the growth in sales figures over the last ten years”.

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“This reduction in personnel after years of rising employment is painful,” a Pierer Mobility Group statement reads, “but necessary in order to maintain and secure the competitiveness of the production site.”

The statement blames the slowing of sales in 2024 on market volatility in Europe and high interest rates in the US. In addition, it says that “this reduction in personnel after years of rising employment is painful, but necessary in order to maintain and secure the competitiveness of the production site.” As a result, PMG is reducing its production volumes at its Austrian base in Mattighofen, and instead looking to further utilise the industrial partnerships it has developed in China (with CFMoto) and India (with Bajaj).

“Due to the increasingly fragile supplier industry in Europe,” the PMG statement reads, “the Pierer Mobility Group is utilising the favourable economic conditions in these regions to secure its competitiveness. An efficient and high-quality supplier industry is being established there.”

PMG says that it expects a decline in sales of between 10–15 per cent in the 2024 financial year. It adds that it expects its cost saving measures (reducing staff and European production volume) will allow it to break even or even make a before-tax profit in 2024. “The Executive Board assumes that the cost savings introduced in the current financial year will be able to compensate for the negative effects of declining sales to such an extent that a balanced to slightly positive EBIT (Earnings before interest and taxes) can be generated,” the statement says.

In addition to job cuts in its motorcycle business, Pierer Mobility Group is expected to downsize some of its motorcycle racing projects, too. Media reports from the Motocross World Championship, which currently remain unconfirmed, suggest that Husqvarna, which currently fields one bike in the MXGP class for Italian Mattia Guadagnini, will not be present on the MXGP gate next year, with the Nestaan team that currently operates both the MX2 and MXGP teams for the Swedish brand returning to an MX2-only setup. Further, with Jorge Prado widely anticipated to be leaving MXGP for the US, and the Pierer Mobility Group (he currently rides for GasGas) for Kawasaki, GasGas might not be present in MXGP next year, either. 

Such withdrawals would leave only Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings as PMG representation in the premier class of the Motocross World Championship.

In MotoGP, we already know that GasGas will no longer be the brand associated with the Tech3 team, with that instead becoming a second Red Bull KTM team.