Pierer Mobility AG reduce executive board from six to two as financial difficulties continue

KTM parent company Pierer Mobility AG have announced a reduction in their executive board as they continue to tackle financial difficulty across their portfolio.

Back in September, the business group, which owns KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, WP Suspension, and 50.1% of MV Agusta, announced that 200 employees would lose their jobs in the third quarter of the year following poor sales.

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Net debt was also placed at €1.469 billion, with these cuts following 373 earlier redundancies made since the start of the year.

“The difficult macroeconomic conditions are lasting longer than expected,” a statement from Pierer released on October 21 read. “The European economy is stagnating, with the important German market in particular in recession.

“In the USA, consumer purchasing power remains low due to the high cost of living and the long period of expensive consumer credit.”

In light of this, the executive board of the company has now been reduced from six to two members, with just Stefan Pierer as CEO and Gottfried Neumeister sitting as Co-CEO.

“The second half of the year at Pierer Mobility is generally characterised by a high-margin product mix, especially in the offroad segment,” the statement continued.

“However, the available registration data for the overall motorcycle market in the USA for the period from January to September 2024 shows a decline of 6.3%.

“September was also the weakest month since January 2024 with a decline of 14.6%, meaning that a rapid recovery cannot be expected.”

• Related: UK motorcycle sales figures continue to fall

Pierer say they are committed to supporting their dealers and strategic partners going forward, however have also cancelled their 2024 guidance for revenue and earnings as it is forecast to fall short of expectations.

Despite the negative news, the firm continue to deliver an onslaught of new motorcycle models for 2025, including the recently announced KTM 1390 Super Adventure S Evo – publicly announced just a day on from these cuts.