This year has started with big changes for KTM. Its parent company has officially undergone a name change, it’s hired a new employee, and then fired several hundred others – all in the service of attempting to overcome its nightmare financial situation.
We’ll start with the new name. Back in May of last year In May 2025, KTM – or, to be more accurate, KTM’s parent company – was bailed out of its financial mess by Indian mega-corporation Bajaj Auto. The third-largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, Bajaj churns out millions of two-wheelers of its own, as well as manufacturing all of Triumph’s 400 models.
In the process of saving KTM’s bacon, Bajaj took on a 75-percent stake in its parent entity, Pierer Mobility AG. As of this week, that entity is no more. KTM is now under the guidance of Bajaj Mobility AG.
The head of Bajaj Auto, Raviv Bajaj has made no secret of his frustrations with KTM’s old way of doing things. In an interview with India’s CNBC TV18 last September he was refreshingly blunt in his assessment, arguing that KTM had too much bloat in terms of human resources, and that “European manufacturing is dead” and that KTM should shift more, if not all, of its manufacturing to China or India.
On a side note, I kind of admire how straight-talking Indian CEOs are. A few months ago, I got to have a one-on-one conversation with Royal Enfield’s Govindarajan Balakrishnan – or BGR as some folks call him – and that guy doesn’t pull punches. Whereas most CEOs I’ve spoken to/interviewed over the years have a habit of wrapping statements in buzzwords and tactful speak, BGR just speaks honestly about where his company’s strengths and weaknesses are.
Back to KTM: Raviv Bajaj clearly wasn’t bluffing. On the same day that Bajaj Mobility AG became official, some 500 KTM employees were handed their notice. Those employees were “predominantly in salaried positions and middle management,” according to a media release.
“This reduction in positions is a difficult but necessary decision to lower our costs, slim down structures, and thereby place the company on a stable footing for the long term,” the media release quotes KTM CEO Gottfried Neumeister as saying. “We are reducing complexity across all areas – for example in our model range, in IT, and also in the organization of our departments, particularly by removing one management layer.”
For his part, Neumeister recently signed a deal with Bajaj Mobility AG that will keep him on as KTM’s head honcho until at least 2028. He first stepped into the role almost exactly a year ago, on 23 January 2025.
As of 1 April 2026, he will be joined by a new executive, KTM’s new chief commercial officer, Stephan Reiff. Having previously served as vice president of Customer, Brand and Sales at BMW Motorrad, he’ll come to the role with plenty of experience of being in a German-speaking company that relies heavily on foreign manufacturing.
Bajaj Mobility AG says he will be “responsible for Sales, Marketing, Brand Strategy, Dealer Network and Aftersales,” which sounds like a hell of a remit to me. And he’ll be doing it with 500 fewer employees to rely on.
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