During the 5th edition of the ‘UK–ITALY Business Awards’ - that took place yesterday in Milan - the British Government and the UK Trade Investment (UKTI) have given Ducati the prestigious ‘Brand Recognition Award’, a further acknowledgement of Ducati’s status as one of the most successful Italian brands in the world.

The ceremony took place at the Palazzo di Mezzanotte, home of Italy’s main stock exchange, where HM Consul General and Director General for Trade & Investment, Mr. Vic Annels, handed the prize in the hands of Ducati Motor Holding’s President, Mr. Gabriele Del Torchio (pictured right and left respectively). Curiously enough, the award comes in the same week that saw Ducati UK announcing that in 2011 they had their best sales result since 2003, thereby marking a significant growth of the brand within the British market.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Del Torchio stated: “I am very proud to receive this award on behalf of everyone at Ducati, a prize that recognizes the value of a brand as loved and respected in the United Kingdom as in the rest of world. Ducati is achieving important and significant results in this country, in terms of both sales and image, and this is a reward to our products and to our strategic management.” Mr.Vic Annels also commented: “We are happy to award Ducati with the Brand Recognition Award and we are honoured that such an outstanding and innovative brand has decided to increase its investments in the United Kingdom. Ducati boasts a long and successful racing history in our country, and we are pleased to see that this fact is mirrored by its commercial policy.”

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Gabriele Del Torchio, President of Ducati Motor Holding confirmed once again that 2011 was record year for the Italian manufacturer during yesterday’s press conference at the Wrooom event.

“We’ve grown 21,5%,” said Del Torchio. “These numbers are consolidated and we’ve done well worldwide and we’ve sold 42.200 motorcycles, it was the best year in our history. 80% of our production is exported. The U.S. is our number one market , followed by Italy and Germany with a 31% increase. In France we sold 4,100 thousand motorcycles and in the Far East a + 84%. We didn’t lay off any workers. In 2008 and 2009 instead of cutting down on investments we invested on new bikes and strategic alliances that helped us promote our brand. We understood that in Italy things weren’t going well and that we’d better look at other markets and this helped us have a great 2011 and hope for a better 2012.

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Valentino Rossi said he’d like another two year contract and he may get his wish as Ducati’s CEO Gabriele Del Torchio still believes in him.

“Valentino Rossi remains our choice for the future,” said Del Torchio during today’s press conference at the 2012 Wrooom. “The goal is to be competitive. We’ll discuss contract renewal in 2012, but now it’s too soon. But the tendency is to confirm Nicky Hayden and Valentino.”

“I’m absolutely certain that 2012, despite the difficulties will be a good year,” he continued. “Filippo and his team have worked very hard and are doing miracles. We don’t have the financial resources that our Japanese competitors have, but the intelligence is there, the desire to do well also and the bike is promising, and I suggest that you listen carefully to Filippo tomorrow.”

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President of Ducati Motor Holding Gabriele Del Torchio was at the Bologna Motor Show today to present the 1199 Panigale and in the usual press conference the Italian manager touched several bases, including the fact that 2011 has been the company’s best year for sales with an increase of over 30%, with North America being their best market followed by Italy and Germany and expects 2012 to be even better, despite a very lagging domestic market (and you can bet it is going to get even worse ).

Del Torchio also talked about Ducati’s GP team and Valentino Rossi commenting that Rossi lacked a bit of luck - actually, he said Rossi lacked “il fattore C” - which in Italian slang means “culo” or ass - and is an idiomatic expression meaning luck.

“It was a year of getting to know each other,” said Del Torchio. “We had to learn Valentino’s riding style and he had to get to know us. We did a great job. Last year we lacked what Napoleon used to say was a key factor for his generals, the C factor. We had a lot of bad luck. Next year I think will be better, the new bike is very ‘interesting’. Winter testing was encouraging and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. I think it will be a very competitive season.”

Maybe Ducati was missing the ‘C factor’ in 2011, but they we’re definitely missing a certain rider whose first name starts with a C.

Source | ilrestodelcarlino.it

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Speculation that Ducati would soon be making a maxi scooter and a scrambler have been growing over the last year or so and just last week Ducati’s Claudio Domenicali in an interview with Motosprint.com, confirmed that the Italian company was seriously thinking about it, but now Ducati’s head honcho Gabriele Del Torchio has nixed it.

Speaking to our Italian cousins at Motoblog.it during the Moto Passion bike show, Del Torchio stated that the company “has a well defined range and now we are concentrating on our next project for the sports market and on Superbikes, we’re not thinking of new models. That’s our industrial production plan for the next 3 to 5 years, and we have no maxi scooter in mind, and certainly not a scrambler. “

Do we actually believe Del Torchio? Nope. Ducati isn’t dishing out a few millions of euros to build plants in Thailand and Brazil just to get around import taxes and and concentrate on selling 20,000 more sportbikes or the Diavel in expanding markets.

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With the economic crisis still not showing any sign of improvement, and Belgium now joining the ever growing list of European countries who are hit by debts, and motorcycle/scooter mad Italy with a -24,2% sales decrease in 2010, Ducati is still holding it’s own during these last three difficult years, with sales and exports up.

Ducati, may be small motorcycle manufacturers, but according to CEO Gabriele Del Torchio, speaking from the 2011 Vrooom, the company has increased its global market share to 8.6% (15% share in Italy), while increasing worldwide sales in 2010 by 5%, with sales in North America and the Far-East up 64%, with the Multistrada 1200 becoming a best seller.

Here’s what he had to say:

Continue reading: Italians do it better, at least Ducati's CEO thinks so

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The Ducati Motor Holding company is not immune to globalization and expanding to new and larger markets and after decades of working solely in Italy, has decided to open a new facility in Thailand (work will start in the next few days).

The company will delocalize the final assembly stage of their motorcycles destined for the Asian markets in order to get around high import duties and taxes.

Italian unions and the local regional government are worried that this may be the first step in cutting down on the work force and closing down the Bologna factory with dire consequences also to the rest of the production chain, have asked for guarantees that this won’t happen.

Gabriele Del Torchio, Ducati’s CEO said he had no comment on the question, but according to Giancarlo Muzzarelli, the regional counciller for productive activities, who met with Del Torchio on Tuesday, said that Ducati has confirmed that they are going ahead with the Asian plant, while they have no intention of decreasing their presence on Italian territory.

Del Torchio left for Thailand on Wednesday to oversee the start of the new production unit, while further discussions will take place in January.

Source | repubblica.it via motoblog.it

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If you’ve ordered a Ducati from your local dealer and still haven’t received it, you may want to put the blame on future Ducati rider Valentino Rossi for the delivery delay.

This absurd story is currently happening at the Ducati factory in Bologna, where the management has asked their employees to give up their habitual ten minute hand washing break in the name of an increased labour productivity.

Historically, Ducati factory workers have always had this 10 minute break; five minutes before their lunch break they stop working to wash off dirt and grease and five minutes before heading home at the end of the day, but Ducati management has put a stop to this and it’s resulted in protests and half hour strikes from workers, backed by their unions who say that Ducati has no right to renege this privilege, that’s even specified in their collective contract.

Continue reading: Unions blame Valentino Rossi for Ducati Soap War

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Two Ducati Multistrada 1200’s were delivered to Pope Benedict XVI today at the Pope’s summer home at Castel Gandolfo.

The two motorcycles donated by Ducati, will be used by the Vatican gendarmerie and have been customized for police use and the livery is based on the white and yellow colors of the Vatican flag.

The ceremony was attended by Carlo Bonomi, Andrea Bonomi (Investindustrial CEO) and Gabriele Del Torchio (Ducati ’s CEO) who had the honor of giving the keys of the two bikes personally to the Holy Father.

Source | repubblica.it

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After the announcement that Ducati was pulling out of the world superbike competition, the company either underestimated the PR-fallout that would take place or overestimated just how badly Italy wanted Valentino Rossi in Ducati. Because since the announcement, the company has had to clarify its decision somewhat, with statements from Ducati President Gabriele del Torchio.

He says that the signing of Valentino Rossi to the Ducati MotoGP team has nothing to do with the decision and that it’s a simple restructure of company costs. The statements came during the announcement that Ducati has resigned Nicky Hayden. Del Torchio says:

“Firstly, I’d like to say that Ducati is not leaving SBK. We will continue to race as a satellite team, just like the Japanese do. The world changes and we need to streamline our resources. Basically, the engineers that are currently in SBK will move to developing new production models and improving quality. There will be private teams on the track - that seems logical to me. We are definitely not abandoning the SBK because its in our company DNA.”

Continue reading: Del Torchio: Ducati in SBK as satellite team

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UPDATE: Ducati Press Release

Regarding the recent allegations attributed to Gabriele Del Torchio - Ducati CEO and President, Ducati states that no agreement has been reached with the riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden for the future Moto GP season, although our interest in these riders remains. We would like to say that the recent news which has appeared on the US website Cycle World and other websites has been misreported and must be attributed to the many rumors circulating lately. Whether and when an agreement is reached, official press releases will be issued.

While Jeremy Burgess was spinning MCN with “I’m not as convinced as I was” admitting for the first time that Valentino Rossi may not remain in Yamaha in 2011, Ducati’s CEO Gabriele Del Torchio who declared his admiration for Rossi during the Wrooom event last January has let the second worst kept MotoGP secret (least we forget the Stoner/Honda stories) out of the bag, confirming that the 9 times World Champion will be dressing and riding red next season.

Having stolen Rossi’s thunder that he would have revealed at the upcoming Brno GP, Del Torchio speaking to Cycle World said This season will not bring to Ducati any crown in the sport” said Del Torchio “but I look forward to Valentino Rossi teaming up with Nicky Hayden.”

Del Torchio went on with: “Nicky is a wonderful person and a great rider. This year, he greatly contributed to improving our Desmosedici racer. Next year, he and Valentino will hone the bike to its ultimate winning potential.”

We’re sure that Nicky Hayden will be mighty pleased with this confirmation and with the Italian CEO having spilled the beans, we now can expect that Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis may not want to wait for the Czech GP to announce the Lorenzo-Spies line-up.

UPDATE:
According to Motoblog.it Ducati has denied the Rossi story and are waiting for an official press release from Borgo Panigale to clarify the story.

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Following the Ducati tradition, the newest and hottest member of the Italian marque’s family, the four-in-one Multistrada 1200 received it’s official christening with the mandatory bottle of bubbly, when the first MTS in white, rolled off the floor in Borgo Panigale, in the presence of Claudio Domenicali, Gabriele Del Torchio and Silvano Fini.

Source | motoblog

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