southern road . We had heard that Russian forces were coming down from Belarus and we didn ' t want to encounter them on the way back . As we drove on and on , all the traffic was facing us , and it made us fearful of what we were heading into . The first days back in Zhytomyr were the hardest . Russians were making advances and we heard reports about the human tragedy in regions around Kyiv - where relatives of our staff were

living and desperately trying to escape - and the night-time missile attacks on Zhytomyr were keeping our staff in a constant state of fear . People were spending half the night in bomb shelters , due to explosions . Then trying to function during the day . It is tough on the mind . But here is where the strange thing starts to happen . Every day that we didn ' t die made us a little less fearful . When in Ukraine , I live on the 10th floor of an apartment building , and have slept in my own bed every night . I decided from the start that I would not go to the shelters - I would not be able to manage our team effectively if I was half exhausted . After the helpless and hopeless feeling on the first days , we have reached many small victories in the company . Our first ' win ' was to make an export of produced parts on the 11th of March . That seemed impossible in the beginning , but we were terrifically fortunate . Possibly our staff were

motivated by my return . They felt that it could be ok if ' DJ ' had returned . Several people have said that it motivated them . To be honest , I didn ' t know anything , but we are all hanging on to those hopeful messages and signs . At the start , there were no factories operating in the city , apart from ours . The trucking companies all closed down and the customs office wasn ' t working . We had a huge task finding a truck to move the sprockets . No one wanted to drive to our city . We did find a truck 150 km west , where the owner said that he would take our goods , if

we could get them to him . Our managers searched and pleaded to find someone willing to move the shipment to that first truck . I drove behind the delivery and watched those crates get loaded from one truck to the other . As they headed off for the Polish border , it felt like the greatest victory ever . But it was necessary to come back to earth and face the next challenge . As I ' m writing this , we have a container of critical aluminium sitting at Odessa port , 70 km from the eastern front line , with another container having been offloaded in Turkey , and we needed to find that . A new robot for our production ( fully paid ) is located in Sumy , east of Kyiv , and some 40 km from the Russian border . Our sub-contract partner for heat treatment is also in Sumy . Our steel supplier is in Mariupol , and several more of our sub-contractors are in the industrial east . Plus , we had some tooling lost in the fighting at a Kyiv airport warehouse . In all , we have close to € 500,000 locked up and scattered all over Ukraine . But it ' s not important to us if we are safe . We can recover . Despite these challenges , we have been able to make a second export shipment on 1st April , with more than 15 tons of sprockets going over the border to our warehouse in Poland . We

have connected with many alternative suppliers for the lost material and services . Our team are more motivated than ever before , to prove that we are good enough and that we can ' t be stopped so easily - we have the belief . Finally , I want to say that I do understand a little about the nature of the people attacking Ukraine . They

don ' t respect diplomacy or negotiation . In the East , kindness is often seen as weakness . By showing strength , we send a clear message that we will never be defeated . It is possible to repel the aggressor . We don ' t know what is going to be in front of us , but the united front of political parties and the determination to stand up to bullies is essential at this time . We are extremely grateful for the international assistance to this point . Without the help from other nations , Russian forces would already be facing directly to the European community at the border . That would bring far higher danger for all in the West .

news ROOM

Norton Motorcycles has a fresh face on the board of its parent company TVS Motors - Sir Ralf Speth had been due to take over as Chairman in January 2023 , but the former Jaguar Land Rover boss will take over in April 2022 instead .

In other Norton news , disgraced former owner Stuart Garner has escaped jail . Having admitted charges of Pension fund fraud , Garner has received an eight-month prison sentence , suspended for two years , for each of three counts of breaching employer-related investment ( ERI ) rules .

Piaggio Group and Santander Consumer Finance signed an international partnership to develop retail financial service solutions .

Energica has established ' Energica Inside ' ( EI ) - a business unit " dedicated to developing and production of powertrains , batteries assembly and technology for electric vehicles ". Leveraging its ten years of experience " in the world of fullelectric mobility , Energica has now the strength to expand the range of its R & D to other areas , both in low and high voltage systems . EI will provide knowledge and EV competences to all industries that want to be part of the electric revolution , speeding up their transition - serving as an electric transition gateway for all type of industries ".

Piaggio is developing a new 55,000 sqm factory in Jakarta , Indonesia , as additional Far East Asia capacity to its existing plants in Vin Puch ( Vietnam ) and Foshan ( China ). With over five million scooters and motorcycles sold every year , Indonesia is the third largest global market - after India and China . In 2021 , Piaggio Group increased its sales in Indonesia by 61 % with over 50 dedicated sales outlets , including four Motoplex flagship stores for Aprilia , Moto Guzzi , Vespa and Piaggio in Jakarta , Bali , Surabaya and Jogjakarta .

Ducati has followed the example of many other manufacturers in launching a custom programme . The Ducati Unica programme will be operated by Ducati Centro Stile , the company ' s design department , and allow customers to interact directly with designers - " who will then interpret their desires and create oneoff machines to suit their precise demands ".

Sources : AMD , IDN , FT , Reuters , PSB , MPN , BDN , MCN , AP , Bloomberg , MSNW , Electrek , electricmotorcycles . news , RideApart . com , Motor1 . com , Cycle World , motorbikewriter . com

www . idnmag . com

INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - APRIL / MAY 2022 7