Ducati thriving in "harsh environment", CEO says

From Ducati Press

MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO, ITALY – The Ducati Marlboro Team was officially presented on the snow-covered slopes of Italy’s prestigious winter mountain location, Madonna di Campiglio on Tuesday. Ducati CEO and President, Gabriele Del Torchio, met the media and gave interviews regarding the current motorcycle market situation and the ever-growing prestigious and significant role played by Ducati within the international motorcycling industry.

“2010 was the final year of our three year strategic-industrial plan, presented in January 2008," he explained. "Over this period, Ducati economic and financial figures increased exponentially in terms of profitability and production. Registrations increased by 5 percent in 2010, reaching 36,200 motorcycles, enabling us to achieve a market share of 8.6 percent, a 1.5 point improvement compared to the final figures of an already positive 2009.

"Ducati is growing on all markets and especially in Italy, where our share today is more than 15 percent, and in North America and the Far-East where sales increased by 64 percent. The dramatic impact of the world crisis on this specific market (-52 percent over the three past years) saw the motorcycling industry lose 12.1 percent and 13.7 percent for our specific segment.

"In this harsh environment Ducati completed a significant turnaround, meeting all planned goals and constantly investing on research and development of new products. Since 2007 Ducati presented 12 brand new models, two more than the original plan. But being innovative is not enough and the fact that defects found on bikes during the guarantee period have now been reduced by 50 percent speaks volumes about the progress made on the quality side of our work.

"A great contribution to 2010 was provided by the Multistrada 1200. Although the motorcycle has only been available since April 2010, 8,887 were sold and 7,200 registered, conquering 14.3 percent market points in its segment. It was its first year on the market and the Multistrada became the second world-best-seller.

"In 2011 a new three-year strategic planning has started, during which we will mainly focus on our growth, both in our traditional markets and in the new ones, and on strengthening our financial and economic structure. Our new industrial plan for 2011-2013 will challenge us with crucial targets in all directions and our main objective will be to continue to deliver more innovative, premium products to Ducatisti world-wide."