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The family name may be on the sign out front, but Stefan Pierer will no longer be leading KTM and its parent company, Pierer Mobility AG.
The change in leadership was widely expected as Pierer Mobility — parent of GASGAS, Husqvarna, and other subsidiaries, as well as KTM — tries to raise funding and stave off bankruptcy through a self-administration process begun last year. Co-CEO Gottfried Neumeister will continue at the helm through the reorganization with Pierer advising, according to the company statement.
The company also announced it is in talks with investors who have offered to provide enough funding to allow the company to pay off 30% of its debts, which is part of the restructuring plan. Undoubtedly, the change of leadership is a required step in obtaining that outside investment.
It's very much the end of an era as Pierer had been leading KTM for three decades, building the company from a regional motorcycle manufacturer to a major player worldwide. But that desire for growth overextended the company in recent years, leaving it deeply in debt.
Because of the reorganization, Pierer Mobility issued a statement saying it did not expect to file its 2024 annual financial report until late April. However, the company did release some preliminary numbers today that both provided a sense of how deep a hole the company is in and showed the results of its first steps to get out of it.
Stefan Pierer is not the only one losing a position. To date, more than 1,800 employees have been cut across the various subsidiaries, according to the company statement, as motorcycle production was significantly dialed back. The statement said the group produced 230,000 motorcycles in 2024, a reduction of 26% compared to 2023. The group sold 292,497 motorcycles to dealers, a 21% reduction over 2023. Distributors and dealers, in turn, sold 268,000 to customers.
The statement said these measures have so far reduced global motorcycle inventories by 18% or 40,000 units. Various estimates of the backlog of unsold motorcycles have been reported by various media outlets around the world. These numbers from the company suggest the group had around a quarter of a million unsold motorcycles in inventory.
Preliminary numbers show revenue of about €1.9 billion in 2024, a decrease of 29% year over year. That will lead to an expected loss of about €300 million, the company reported.
