One Tuscan manufacturing company recorded growth this past year despite Italy’s economic slowdown, in what could be a model to follow by other Italian businesses struggling to survive. The key to success, however, may lie abroad.
The Piaggio Group in Pontedera (Pisa), maker of the iconic Vespa scooter, registered a rise in the cost of its shares in April 2012, confirming its place as a leader in the scooter market. The Tuscan company’s market share in Italy is around 25 percent, about the same as April 2011.
Brand awareness in the scooter sector has also climbed to 32.8 percent, up 0.2 percentage points. According to recent data released by Confindustria Ancma, Piaggio’s market share in the over 50cc scooter category rose to 29.7 percent (+1.7 points compared to April 2011); remained stable in the motorcycle category, at 6 percent market share; and grew to 7.8 percent in the premium motorcycle (over 700cc) category.
The success is largely due to the company’s newly launched scooters, the Beverly Piaggio and Aprilia SRV 850. In the 50cc category, the brand’s top seller is the Scarabeo, the Vespa LX and the Piaggio Liberty 50.
The Tuscan manufacturer has even more ambitious goals in Asia. In late April, Piaggio launched its famous Vespa LX scooter in India, Asia’s third largest economy. The Vespa LX will cost around 66,661 rupees (1,282 US dollars) in India, the lowest sales price for the Vespa in the world. The Vespas will be made at Piaggio’s new 30-million-dollar factory in Baramati (Maharashtra), India, where plans to invest another 20 million to bring its production output to 300,000 scooters a year there by 2013.
Since opening its first Asian factory in Vietnam in 2009, Piaggio has launched operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia. Through a joint venture in China, established in 1995, Piaggio can produce up to 500,000 bikes a year at its factory in Guangdong.
The results of these operations in Asia shine: Piaggio’s profits across the continent grew by 41 percent in 2011 following a 76 percent increase in sales there.
A wave of Vespamania also seems to be taking America by storm: Vespa’s LX model was the best-selling European two-wheeler in the United States in 2011, with more than 5,300 scooters sold. Piaggio increased its market share of America’s scooter market to almost 30 percent, just as the group’s chief executive officer, Roberto Colannino, announced that a special design centre would be opened in Pasadena, California, this year.
‘Setting up a research center in California opens a window on the changes that will be taking place in our society, way of life, and urban and metropolitan mobility models in the next few years,’ said Colaninno.
This year we are ramping up our international growth,’ he added, ‘and consistently with the expansion of our industrial and commercial operations around the world, we are also implementing an “intelligence globalization” policy to create an international system of standards and research in the areas of product marketing and style. A few weeks ago, our Mantua location opened a product-marketing center with a team of young marketing managers from all the Piaggio Group European and Asian locations. The new Advanced Design Center in Pasadena will be working not only at the cutting edge of style developments, but will also be cooperating with the world’s top universities and research centers.’
Visit the Piaggio Museum
The Fondazione Piaggio is offering free entrance to the Piaggio Museum in Pontedera every second Sunday of the month. Opened in 2000 and managed by the Piaggio Foundation, a nonprofit organization of Piaggio & C. SpA, the Municipality of Pontedera and Pisa, the museum welcomed more than 36,000 visitors last year. The Piaggio Foundation also organizes conferences, seminars and events focusing on cultural and scientific issues. See www.museopiaggio.it for more information.
