Report: MZ plant closes

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Report: MZ plant closes

Report: MZ plant closes

Report: MZ plant closes

Report: MZ plant closes

Report: MZ plant closes

9 pictures

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

1/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

2/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

3/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

4/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

5/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

6/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

7/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

8/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

Report: MZ plant closes
MZ

9/9
New 1000 SF, according to MZ im “brutal street fighter look”.

motorcycles

Report: Factory closure at MZ

Report: MZ plant closes
Close MZ?

The Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong intends to end its involvement in Zschopau by the end of this year. Negotiations with potential investors have so far remained unsuccessful. It is more than uncertain whether there is still a chance for MZ.

Christopher Ost, Michael Orth

06/19/2008

It was a letter from management that got MZ dealers excited on June 5, 2008. The letter, one page long and signed, but hardly drafted by CEO Steve Yap, had not necessarily been intended for the public. But it did not even take a day for larger circles to draw what was revealed to the dealers in this announcement: “The partner of MZ Motorrad und Zweiradwerk GmbH (MZ) decided to cease business operations on December 31, 2008.”

Ines Borner, the head of the finance and purchasing department at MZ in Zschopau, finds clearer words. “The company will cease to exist, ”she says. And she doesn’t just sound slightly occupied when she adds that MZ is being liquidated. All employees have been informed and will receive their notice in the next few weeks.”

Does that sound very final? and yet not as if the decision came as a surprise. More like insiders could have expected the Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong Berhad Industries to draw a line. ?? It was foreseeable that there would be a decision ,? says Ms. Borner. First, a binding period for the country’s investment grants expires at the end of this year. Second: Talks about taking over MZ had dragged on for the past two years, but negotiations with various investors had failed. Why? The answer depends on who you ask. One source said that several factors stood in the way of an agreement. These can be business plans of the investor that are considered inappropriate, lack of liquidity or lack of trustworthiness. But that can also be the price expectations of the owner.

There was no success

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Wild rumors and wishes are circulating around the takeover negotiations and possible candidates. The fact is: Since Hong Leong MZ (then still MuZ) took over after the bankruptcy in 1996, tens of? we’re talking about 60 ?? Million euros to Zschopau. And nothing really flowed back. Ambitious plans to establish MZ as a permanent fixture in the world motorcycle market repeatedly required significant corrections. Downward. The development department had to shut down. The construction of the company’s own two-cylinder engine, costing around ten million euros, dragged on. Despite their qualities, the 1000 models were unable to sell well. The production of the 125cc, flawless machines, was partly outsourced to Asia, model updates were only carried out with very little effort. The workforce shrank to just under 50 employees; in the best of times MZ employed around 3800 people. None of this reads like a success story. And yet it is a ?? at least in the one sense that MZ still exists as a brand and motorcycle manufacturer.

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But: not prospering, despite double-digit million subsidies from the state of Saxony and investments from Malaysia. It would be pointless to enumerate the reasons for this, the list of causes is long and begins long before the events that have turned so much in Germany. Which is one of the main sticking points. In addition, MZ was already in trouble before the current owner got on board. Petr-Karel Korous had been running the MZ business since 1992, but there is an opinion that this man actually ran his own business.

Hong Leong, on the other hand, was probably not primarily interested in sales with large-volume machines, but rather in large-volume sales. MZ, with the 1000 series, should be the coveted leading brand for making money with small-volume motorcycles in emerging countries. Shortly after the plans to close the plant had made the rounds at the beginning of June, MZ boss Steve Yap signaled that he was ready to talk again. “If someone puts five million cash on the table, we can do business”, he is supposed to have said and smiled. Saxony’s Economics Minister Thomas Jurk (SPD) promised to campaign for it, “that talks with potential investors are resumed. We need an investor who can bring the traditional brand back to life”, he said on a visit to Zschopau. If such a donor is not found, it can hardly be prevented that MZ is sold in parts after a slow and expensive decline at the end of the year.

MZ history – from DKW to today

Actually, Jorgen Skafte Rasmussen wanted to build steam power cars from 1907 onwards. When the first single-cylinder two-stroke engine rattled off at the Zschopau plant in 1919, the letters DKW stayed with him. With the slogan “DKW, the little miracle, runs uphill like others downhill” A success story starts two years later. In 1922 the actual motorcycle production begins. By the end of the Second World War, DKW had produced around 650,000 machines. It was not until 1956 that the first motorcycle rolled off the production line under the new MZ brand (Motorradwerk Zschopau), an MZ ES 250. MZ had 3,088 employees.

1983 The two millionth MZ since 1950
rolls off the belt. Leave daily 320,
80,000 machines annually in the halls

1989 MZ has 3200 employees

1990 The Treuhandanstalt privatizes MZ,
1950 employees remain

1991 Despite support of
The trust decides 70 million marks on December 19, the end for MZ

1992 On July 1st, Petr-Karel Korous founds the Motorrad- und Zweiradwerk GmbH, or MuZ for short. Only 100 of the 650 employees can stay. Korous becomes managing director

1993 Presentation of the Scorpion models

1995 The production facilities for the
Two-stroke engines are sold in Turkey

1996 MuZ files for bankruptcy and
is taken over by the Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong

1999 MuZ is called MZ again

2000 Prototype of the MZ 1000 S on the
Intermot. The one planned for the end of 2001
Sales start is postponed several times

2003 Delivery of the MZ 1000 S

2004 Korous has to go, the new managing director is Ramasamy Vasuthewan. MZ has 200 employees again

2005 Christoph Baumgartner becomes the second boss. The MZ 1000 SF comes with the
Product Design Award honored. Only 90 employees left

2006 Designer Jens vom Brauck presents the MZ 1000 SFx, but it never goes into series production. Baumgartner leaves MZ and Steve Yap Peng Leong becomes the new boss

2007 The share capital of the GmbH is reduced from 37 million to 100,000 euros

2008 On June 4th, Hong Leong decides,
to cease business operations of MZ

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