ARE GAS GAS IN TROUBLE AGAIN?
Having closed its doors in 2015 under a huge debt cloud, only to be bailed out by TORROT in 2018, the Spanish company are now looking for ways to cut costs at the factory, due to what we can only assume is a cash flow problem.
In a statement from the Managing Director, Jordi Arilla Arts, published on Enduro21.com, the company are enforcing ‘Cost-Containment Measures’ to ensure the viability of Gas Gas and the continuation of the parts and servicing supply.
“Dear partner,
After some noise published by different digital media in Spain, TORROT / GASGAS would like to clarify some aspects about the current situation of the company.
Recently, TORROT / GASGAS has designed a feasibility and continuity plan based on cost-containment measures that implies an annual saving of 45%, the optimization and improvement of processes and industrial margins and the issue of a Temporary Employment Regulation Process, which affects the workforce of all group companies: Torrot Electric Europa SA, GasGas Motorcycles SLU and Velocípedo Torrot S.L.U. for a period of three to six months.
These measures aim to encourage more flexible cost structures in order to ensure the continuity of the three companies. By no means, the Management Board has planned to cease production, which continues normal operations according to production planning, nor the closure of the factory of Girona.
In this line of work, the company is negotiating with the Company Labour Committee to agree the range of the Temporary Employment Regulation Process. The evolution of these negotiations will limit the final scope of the process that will always adapt to the needs of production.
At the same time, the Board is engaged in talks with several parties to assure the necessary liquidity of the companies to stabilize cash flow, the production operations plan and the evolution and development of the product catalog.
We keep focused on commercial and after-sales operations in order to meet deliveries of pending orders of the MUVI model to several European Moto-Sharing operators and the launch of the new trial and enduro GASGAS 2020 models. The after-sales service and the supply of spare parts will maintain operations as usual.”
So what does this mean for NZ? Still no official word as yet but if you have recently purchased yourself a new model Gas Gas, don’t expect there to be a lack of parts any time soon. So it should be plain sailing for the foreseeable future.
Though no matter what spin you put on it, the overall look of Cost-Containment Measures can’t be a good thing. With the backing of TORROT, the re-launch of the Gas Gas brand saw a huge improvement in the bikes they made, especially the GP versions. It would be sad to see the brand so nice they named it twice disappear from the market. We have our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
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