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Hi everyone,
As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.
When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.
Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.
Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.
Thanks for your patience and support!
Actual news on the KTM purchase of Husqvarna
- Thread starter Howard V
- Start date
Norman Foley
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Krieg lives!
silverpilen
Husqvarna
AA Class
True, the thing I like about this thread is that you can contribute to the narrative completely unencumbered by the facts. Whenever I hit "What's New" and this thread comes up, I just can't help myself and start reading it - moth to the flame I guess.
We can't change the past and the future will be what it will be. But the fascination of all this drama for me is what really happened at BMW?
It is all too easy to say 11000 bikes in stock, losing money, GFC, blah blah. However, BMW is a big private company, much much bigger than SP and KTM. Husky must be spare change to these guys. So why invest without a long term view and throw money into marketing, development, technology and competition (EWC/WRC & Dakar) only to throw it all away after a few years and just as the investment begins to mature? If they were losing so much money, then why didn't they manage it better and ride it out? What were they thinking? - seriously.
Maybe I am some sort of conspiracy X-Files freak but there is more to this story than meets the eye and I am curious to know what. I suspect some type of Maico style drama will emerge eventually.
fletchman45
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Pretty funny. Considering at least most anything I have ever said has been based off of what is considered fact or at least able to be read off the internet and not dreamed up in my head. Scotty. Heard the same thing from someone associated with MV. So dude. Hug your kids drink a coke and relax. Simply put. Look at my phrasing. I said I heard a rumor from a reliable source and read off the internet. And I ask if anyone has heard this same thing or knows if there is truth to it. So dude with all due respect. Go drink some orange Koolaid. And that is as nice and professional as I can be. Read my whole post. As I say I take everything with a grain of salt. more then likely this part of the equation is true and I will take a sim ple apology when you see that. I do not particularly like negative BS when I am simply making a statement and asking a question at the same time. Please I beg you to crash a KTM in front of me..................................... And for your tidbit this info was given to me by a very very reliable source.....................God dude you
me off.........................There, I said it....No harm intended just and observaton
Norman Foley
Husqvarna
Pro Class
I've heard this story from multiple sources a few weeks ago, when I thought MV might buy it and start building Cagivas there. I was then told, it was to move production from old factory, so it could be sold to Government for a park on Lake Varese.
SigPig
Husqvarna
AA Class
My Husqvarna lawn mower and chainsaw are orange. It's just a colour guys. Why the hate?
fletchman45
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Maybe everyone should read this. Especially certain people..................................
Dear All, first of all I'd like to thank you on behalf of those I know from Husqvarna who are grateful that you gave them this opportunity to share their situation, their problems, with you.
Now, I just want you to update you with the latest news, just the facts: today there will be a meeting at Lombardy's region HQ in Milan. Husqvarna will be there with their employee reps. who will meet again the Austrian delegation who actually came to Biandronno. One of them is Werner Kohlhuber.
They will discuss again the layoff of 212 employees which is pending in the near future, like Monday. Now, let me explain you better how this works: usually the Company who wants to proceed with a layoff is required to consult different local authorities and of course the employee representatives in order to reach an agreement. If this does not happen, then the argument is taken to the local Industrial Union Authority to further discuss the deal. If again the deal does not happen, then it cause higher at the Region. If even there everything blows, then the matter is take to Rome (i.e. ministry of labor ) .. NOW, usually it all ends very quickly. I mean, if your company is bankrupt or anyway doesn't have the money to keep going, then what you gonna do? But this case is one of the weirdest and most scandalous ever, because of many aspects: number one, the owner is not in financial trouble, instead is one of the richest men in his country, nevertheless his company is one of the richest in Austria. So he does have the money. Number two,they did not cooperate with any Italian autorities, they mainly skipped the whole thing and here is where the truth lies: you don't skip this process unless you don't want them to discover something you need to hide. Also, the only Antitrust that has been called is the Austrian one, which may raise some eyebrows: what they basically did was to announce the thing on their website and wait for 14 days until passing the deal… so you’d aspect some bigger attention to this kind of acquisition, we are talking about direct competitors, both of them located in Europe etc..This is also why there's a lot of attention from the Italian government, from national TV and press that usually does not give this kind of coverage to local companies of 200 people. I mean, we have Berlusconi guys, alone gets the 90% of the total national coverage everyday!
Anyways, I can also announce you that in Italy they are proposing the range with 30% discount or so http://www.moto.it/news/jackpot-110-anniversario-fino-al-30-di-sconto-sulla-gamma-husqvarna.html.
SP now is looking to get as much money as possible from what he found here, first the bikes stock, then the parts and the latest I think will be the whole HQ and production plant. Infact, getting back to our Mr Werner Kohlhuber, if you google him, the first link you'll find is this, which I believe will be the same fate of Husqvarna’s factory: http://www.advantageaustria.org/nl/oesterreich-in-netherlands/news/local/20110504_KTM-Gebaeude.html. So this man came for a reason and we know what it is.
We can all agree, I think, on the fact that Mr Pierer wants 2 things: the brand, so that he can keep control of the competition, and the money. He did mention a couple of times this is a Volkswagen-ish thing he's trying to do. Well, it's not. cause those VW people yes bought the companies and factories, but didn't close any of them, they invested in them. Huge difference.
Regarding the MV rumor, we heard the same thing here (now people please, of course we got rumors here. I mean, do you expect anybody right now to put in writing what's the situation? Like SP saying "YES I WANT TO SCREW THOSE ITALIAN PEOPLE HARD" and the BMW people say "YES, WE SCREWED UP AND RUN AWAY, BUT WE NEED TO KEEP OUR IMAGE STRONG. So we gave away the thing and forgot about telling the people they need to find another job soon".. seriously? I don't think it's happening).
it is also being heard Varese asked Castiglioni to move from the lake area as they would like to improve it as a touristic attraction. Castiglioni is the owner of the place, so he can decide, I mean they need to pay up. Seems he had a conversation with SP about the factory, but Pierer is asking for a high price for it and he cannot meet his request. I wonder if he's trying to reach the top 10 in the richest men of Austria's list tho.
BTW, I’ve notice been some doubts concerning where will Husqvarna be produced.. I can assure you 100% it’s not going to be Italy (unless ofcourse the whole thing blows up – SP is fined for industrial looting, is then forced to rehire the 212 people, pay them extra money to settle the situation, etc etc but it’s super hard). It will be Austria or India or both. So the made in Italy in Husqvarna is officially over.
Regarding the soap opera thing, to me this is more like a Disney story:
Donald Duck -> Pierer
The Beagle brothers -> BMW
And the 212 employees are the usual victims of the villains. Disney always give an happy ending, but this is real life and very few times there’s one.
Now, I just want you to update you with the latest news, just the facts: today there will be a meeting at Lombardy's region HQ in Milan. Husqvarna will be there with their employee reps. who will meet again the Austrian delegation who actually came to Biandronno. One of them is Werner Kohlhuber.
They will discuss again the layoff of 212 employees which is pending in the near future, like Monday. Now, let me explain you better how this works: usually the Company who wants to proceed with a layoff is required to consult different local authorities and of course the employee representatives in order to reach an agreement. If this does not happen, then the argument is taken to the local Industrial Union Authority to further discuss the deal. If again the deal does not happen, then it cause higher at the Region. If even there everything blows, then the matter is take to Rome (i.e. ministry of labor ) .. NOW, usually it all ends very quickly. I mean, if your company is bankrupt or anyway doesn't have the money to keep going, then what you gonna do? But this case is one of the weirdest and most scandalous ever, because of many aspects: number one, the owner is not in financial trouble, instead is one of the richest men in his country, nevertheless his company is one of the richest in Austria. So he does have the money. Number two,they did not cooperate with any Italian autorities, they mainly skipped the whole thing and here is where the truth lies: you don't skip this process unless you don't want them to discover something you need to hide. Also, the only Antitrust that has been called is the Austrian one, which may raise some eyebrows: what they basically did was to announce the thing on their website and wait for 14 days until passing the deal… so you’d aspect some bigger attention to this kind of acquisition, we are talking about direct competitors, both of them located in Europe etc..This is also why there's a lot of attention from the Italian government, from national TV and press that usually does not give this kind of coverage to local companies of 200 people. I mean, we have Berlusconi guys, alone gets the 90% of the total national coverage everyday!
Anyways, I can also announce you that in Italy they are proposing the range with 30% discount or so http://www.moto.it/news/jackpot-110-anniversario-fino-al-30-di-sconto-sulla-gamma-husqvarna.html.
SP now is looking to get as much money as possible from what he found here, first the bikes stock, then the parts and the latest I think will be the whole HQ and production plant. Infact, getting back to our Mr Werner Kohlhuber, if you google him, the first link you'll find is this, which I believe will be the same fate of Husqvarna’s factory: http://www.advantageaustria.org/nl/oesterreich-in-netherlands/news/local/20110504_KTM-Gebaeude.html. So this man came for a reason and we know what it is.
We can all agree, I think, on the fact that Mr Pierer wants 2 things: the brand, so that he can keep control of the competition, and the money. He did mention a couple of times this is a Volkswagen-ish thing he's trying to do. Well, it's not. cause those VW people yes bought the companies and factories, but didn't close any of them, they invested in them. Huge difference.
Regarding the MV rumor, we heard the same thing here (now people please, of course we got rumors here. I mean, do you expect anybody right now to put in writing what's the situation? Like SP saying "YES I WANT TO SCREW THOSE ITALIAN PEOPLE HARD" and the BMW people say "YES, WE SCREWED UP AND RUN AWAY, BUT WE NEED TO KEEP OUR IMAGE STRONG. So we gave away the thing and forgot about telling the people they need to find another job soon".. seriously? I don't think it's happening).
it is also being heard Varese asked Castiglioni to move from the lake area as they would like to improve it as a touristic attraction. Castiglioni is the owner of the place, so he can decide, I mean they need to pay up. Seems he had a conversation with SP about the factory, but Pierer is asking for a high price for it and he cannot meet his request. I wonder if he's trying to reach the top 10 in the richest men of Austria's list tho.
BTW, I’ve notice been some doubts concerning where will Husqvarna be produced.. I can assure you 100% it’s not going to be Italy (unless ofcourse the whole thing blows up – SP is fined for industrial looting, is then forced to rehire the 212 people, pay them extra money to settle the situation, etc etc but it’s super hard). It will be Austria or India or both. So the made in Italy in Husqvarna is officially over.
Regarding the soap opera thing, to me this is more like a Disney story:
Donald Duck -> Pierer
The Beagle brothers -> BMW
And the 212 employees are the usual victims of the villains. Disney always give an happy ending, but this is real life and very few times there’s one.
Lime
Husqvarna
A Class
Huskyfede: Good! The most sensible thing to be written in a long time in this tread.
I wonder/worry about is where the majority of Husqvarna bikes will be built? In Austria, or India?
Austria. I am going to stay with Husqvarna.
India. I going to buy a KTM instead.
And who will be in charge of the Husqvarna R&D? I can always hope that the guys from Husaberg will take care of the R&D and factory team will move "home" again to Sweden. Or will some in Italy continue to be in charge of R&D activities? Or will KTM take over?
I wonder/worry about is where the majority of Husqvarna bikes will be built? In Austria, or India?
Austria. I am going to stay with Husqvarna.
India. I going to buy a KTM instead.
And who will be in charge of the Husqvarna R&D? I can always hope that the guys from Husaberg will take care of the R&D and factory team will move "home" again to Sweden. Or will some in Italy continue to be in charge of R&D activities? Or will KTM take over?
me too
McKay
Husqvarna
AA Class
Pretty funny. Considering at least most anything I have ever said has been based off of what is considered fact or at least able to be read off the internet and not dreamed up in my head. Scotty. Heard the same thing from someone associated with MV. So dude. Hug your kids drink a coke and relax. Simply put. Look at my phrasing. I said I heard a rumor from a reliable source and read off the internet. And I ask if anyone has heard this same thing or knows if there is truth to it. So dude with all due respect. Go drink some orange Koolaid. And that is as nice and professional as I can be. Read my whole post. As I say I take everything with a grain of salt. more then likely this part of the equation is true and I will take a sim ple apology when you see that. I do not particularly like negative BS when I am simply making a statement and asking a question at the same time. Please I beg you to crash a KTM in front of me..................................... And for your tidbit this info was given to me by a very very reliable source.....................God dude you
You made it an insult. It is apparent that reading/writing comprehension is not one of your strong points so Ill let it be.
Pit Beirer confirmed the production will move to Austria:
http://www.speedweek.ch/Motocross/news/37690/Pit-Beirer-Cross-und-Enduro-WM-2014-mit-Husqvarna.html
http://www.speedweek.ch/Motocross/news/37690/Pit-Beirer-Cross-und-Enduro-WM-2014-mit-Husqvarna.html
boisedave
Husqvarna
AA Class
You have the factory Husqvarna 2014 imagine as repainted KTM bikes?No, although it will be to see some influences from KTM. But the Husqvarna factory KTM machines will be no copies. Husqvarna exist-class engines. We expect that all customers will have so much fun.
But the development departments are merged in Mattighofen or Munderfing?There will be a separate No. 1 Technical Director at Husqvarna. Can also come from outside. It will not be such that the KTM development alongside chief still working for Husqvarna. We are just going to set up a clever chart. We will employ a top-notch team manager for Husqvarna.
Very interesting... if its to be believed. Production moved to Austria... but seperate bikes -- "will be no copies." Very curious for the launch.
Sparrowhawk
Husqvarna
AA Class
I believe the Volkswagen-ish thing refers to platform sharing and purchasing power with OEM parts suppliers across brands and is not related to corporate governance.
!
