Off the wire
• Latvia urges Albania to achieve results in EU-set priorities  • Albania emphasizes urgency on railway link with Macedonia  • Israeli PM's Congress speech departure from protocol: White House  • Algeria urges Yemeni disputing parties to resort to dialogue  • South Sudan's rival factions sign agreement in Tanzania's Arusha  • 10 killed in car accident in Egypt  • Lithuania's security heads address LNG terminal safety issues  • Chinese ambassador pledges closer legislature cooperation with EU  • Finnish wind power production grows by 43 pct in 2014  • 20 rebels get killed in Syria's Aleppo while preparing car bomb: report  
You are here: 　 Home

Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM aims to be third-largest globally by 2020: CEO

Xinhua, January 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM is aiming at becoming the world's third-largest motorcycle manufacturer by the year 2020, its CEO Stefan Pierer said on Wednesday.

The Mattighofen-based company sold a total of 158,000 motorcycles in 2014 for 1 billion U.S. dollars revenue (865 million euros), and 108 million dollars profit, Pierer said the company plans to pass the 1 billion euro revenue mark this year, Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten reported Wednesday.

When Pierer took over the company 23 years ago only 6,000 motorcycles were sold that year and the company was bankrupt. Since then it has become the largest European motorcycle manufacturer, overtaking BMW and Ducati.

Pierer said the company sights are now set on passing Japanese giants Suzuki and Yamaha, who have the third and fourth largest global market share respectively.

KTM plans to produce 250,000 motorcycles by 2020 which would put it in third place, said Pierer.

The CEO said central aspects for the company brand is to focus on motorcycle racing, KTM bikes already winning 252 world championship titles across various classes, and also quality.

He said the company sees great growth potential particularly in the Asian and Latin American markets, planning to more than double sales there by the end of the decade. Endit