International Dealer News IDN 138 August/September 2017 | Page 24

ROAD TRIP
control cable manufacturer with particular success in
Italy with manufacturers such as Piaggio, Aprilia and
Ducati.
Because of the evolving technology of motorcycle
brakes, J. Juan entered the flexible hose sector in the
1990s, and the same quality control focus we still see
today resulted in their first ISO 9001 Certification.
European brake hose market leadership happened
quickly, and the next stage for J. Juan was to be able
to start being able to supply the complete brake
system, from levers and master cylinders, through
cables and hoses to the calipers themselves.
These days Europe accounts for some 50 percent of
sales, with 30 percent in America and some 20 percent
in Asia. Still headquartered at Gava, on the coast just
south of Barelona, expansion is underway in the
region with an additional facility added to the group,
and internationally with wholly owned or partnership
factories in China and India, a U.S. office in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and a factory to service their growing
American sales, especially in the ATV/Quad and
UTV/SxS markets, due for completion in Mexico in
2018.
The company’s OE customer roster is impressive, with
customers from right across the powersports industry
spectrum, from small cc, scooters and trails bikes,
through to big inchers, the Quad/ATV and UTV/SxS
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sectors, even including a
growing number of electric
vehicle manufacturers. From
Rieju and Gas Gas in Spain,
to BMW, Ducati, Triumph,
Husqvarna, KTM, Piaggio,
Moto Guzzi, Peugeot,
Aprillia, MV Agusta,
Govecs, Domino,
Magura and others
elsewhere in Europe;
to Yamaha, Honda and
Suzuki in Japan; Hyosung, Loncin, Mahindra,
Kymco, Quadro, Zongshen, CF Moto and Hero in India
and elsewhere in Asia; through to the likes of Polaris,
BRP, Can-Am, Indian Motorcycle, Ski-Doo, Arctic Cat
and Zero Motorcycles in the United States and
Canada.
J. Juan says it is the second largest manufacturer of
brake components in Europe and that 90 percent of
“Western” manufactured motorcycles have at least
some J. Juan brake components on them – in 2015
alone the company invested some 1 million euros into
brake component R&D.
Therein lies the heart of the J. Juan story. As I saw for
myself on my recent visit to their Gava, Barcelona
factory, their R&D, testing and quality control
processes and procedures are among the most
extensive and exhaustive I have seen in any motorcycle
parts and accessory business I have ever seen – and I
INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017
have visited manufacturing plants of more kinds in
more countries in the past 25 years than I care to try
to count, literally hundreds.
Their Internal Validation Procedures have built-in
redundancy and double or triple checks for every
stage. As CEO Jose Luis Juan says “we are in the safety
business. Where safety is concerned you just cannot
invest in too many ways of making sure that the
product we ship to our customers not only lives up to
our reputation, but theirs too.
“Original Equipment manufacturers will supply-side
source product from a company such as ours
specifically because we can supply a better and more
reliable product than they can, and because we can
‘we don’t just homologate
the product, we
homologate the process’
deliver it cost effectively. We can do so, compared to
an OE factory, because our investments are spread
across such a wide range of applications and higher
volumes than they can ever leverage themselves.
“At J. Juan we don’t just homologate the product, we
homologate our processes too – design, materials,
testing, manufacturing, more testing and quality
control procedures are subjected to the most intense
scrutiny, so we can achieve ISO accreditation for the
process.”