MONDIAL’S FUTURE - Andrew Wright Interview
Alan Cathcart

Another of Italy's lost legends could be back on the road to revival, after a promising start along the comeback trail which ended in a long pitstop to replenish enthusiasm - and funds. That company is Mondial, whose recent revival has seen it run through more owners in the past half decade than even Norton or Indian managed in a similar timespan. But, just possibly, this particular Italian trophy marque soap opera might yet have a happy ending. Here’s why, in the words of the man charged with finally setting the firm on a straight course towards a sound commercial future: 55-year old British-born American businessman,  Andrew Wright.
 
First, though, a brief recap of the story so far. Previously, as they say on network TV, the rights to the moribund Mondial marque were acquired in 1999 from the aristocratic Boselli family - which founded the company before WW2, and took it to ten World Championships in 1950s’ Grand Prix racing (see history sidebar) - by Roberto Ziletti, a Brescia-based newspress tycoon whose Lastra Group’s 1100 employees last year generated a turnover in excess of Euro 500 million. A diehard motorcycle fan, who raced motocross in his youth before devoting himself to a business career, Ziletti had long harboured a dream to own his own motorcycle company, and ideally one with a glorious heritage - hence Mondial.
 
Nine months later, in 2000, Ziletti cut a deal with Honda for a supply of SP-1/RC51 motors to power born-again Mondial’s first model, the V-twin Piega Superbike. The Honda connection represented the first time the Japanese giant had ever agreed to sell engines to another manufacturer for installation in their own models, and came about - as Honda Europe chief, Silvio Manicardi, confirmed - as perceived repayment of a debt of honour dating back to 1957, when Soichiro Honda was cheeky enough to ask Count Boselli to sell him one of the GP racers with which Mondial had just clinched both the 125cc and 250cc world titles, so he could study the benchmark European technology Honda would be competing against when the Japanese company made its own GP debut in 1959. The Italian nobleman agreed to do so - the Mondial is today the first bike you see when you walk into Honda’s Motegi Collection Hall - so when Mondial asked for the favour to be repaid by supplying engines for the Piega, Honda management felt they could only agree.....
 
The Piega debuted in action with some display laps at the World Superbike round at Valencia in March 2001, and one year later the customer version was ready for the world’s press to ride, to universal acclaim. Mondial’s return from the dead seemed assured - but it wasn’t until November 2002 that the company delivered its first customer bike, manufacturing another 22 before the year’s end. This delay occurred because Ziletti had decided to construct a 2,000 sq.m factory to house the company’s operations at Arcore - not only the former base of Gilera, lying just a couple of k’s from the Monza Autodromo where Mondial had scored so many famous Grand Prix victories down the years, but also the home town of current Italian media tycoon-turned-Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. But even after this was completed, and in spite of a brimming order book from distributors and customers around the world, Piega production still languished, with poor management leading to a state of chaos reigning in the well-equipped factory, resulting in a total of just 76 Piegas being built in all. That’s instead of the 325 envisaged for 2003 alone, with 750 planned for the following year with the launch of the Nuda spinoff designed by French stylebike guru Thierry Henriette’s Boxer Design, which debuted at the 2003 Milan Show but so far not yet reached production.
 
Mondial’s troubles coincided with Lastra’s acquisition of Mitsubishi Corp.’s worldwide graphic arts division, leaving Roberto Ziletti insufficient time to devote his evident business expertise to resolving Mondial’s problems - so after sinking upwards of euro 11 million into the company, and after an abortive attempt to farm Mondial out to a Swiss company, he was forced to walk away from his born-again bike brand. In July 2004 the Arcore factory was placed in the deep freeze by placing the company in the hands of the Monza bankruptcy court, with around 35 Piegas congealed in various states of completeness. After promising so much, Mondial appeared stillborn - to the frustration of many around the world who had become enraptured by the Piega’s appealing blend of Honda engineering and Italian styling - as logging on to the webside www.mondialmotoforum.com will quickly show.
 
Enter Andrew Wright, a 55-year old British-born American entrepreneur and former Ducati Superbike racer whose Valdosta, Georgia-based automotive empire includes a specialty business majoring on Mercedes-Benz vehicles, as well as his Super Bike Racing aftermarket parts and tuning shop which operates nationwide and exports around the world. With an Italian mother, Wright was already well plugged into to Latin motorcycle culture, and having spent extensive time in the Ducati factory brokering the use of Dymag wheels at a time when he held equity in the British wheel manufacturer, he was already familiar with the arcane attributes of the Italian bike industry....
 
Let’s leave it to Wright to take up the story, and give a detailed appraisal of Mondial’s chances to fight its way back into contention commercially in the coming months.

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AC: Andrew, how did a Brit end up owning one of Italy’s most historic two-wheeled trophy marques?
 
AW: In September 2002, I’d received an approach to become the American importer for Mondial, but I’d turned it down out of loyalty to Benelli, which I was then contracted to distributing in the USA. When this eventually fell apart due to Benelli’s disorganisation - as far as I’m aware, they still haven’t yet started up in North America - I went to see Mondial in May 2004, and came away with a deal to start selling them in the USA, instead. But I never heard from them again, and a month later discovered the company had been put into liquidation - this seemed curious, because I’d seen the order books and knew they had customers waiting for bikes, and there were units on the production line, plus a stack of Honda engines on storeroom shelves. What was going on? I believed Mondial had a good product that was all the more desirable with the Honda connection, and with the Nuda waiting in the sidelines which had been acclaimed at the Milan Show the year before - especially as Honda rather surprisingly still hadn’t made such a bike themselves, in spite of the worldwide boom in the Naked bike sector. It seemed this was a company that had no right to be on the floor, and had serious potential provided someone was prepared to run it properly. And that someone might as well be me.
 
AC: At that stage, had you met Roberto Ziletti?
 
AW: No, but my next step was to go to Brescia to spend three days with him, getting a good insight into what had happened. Roberto was still very passionate about resurrecting Mondial, but basically, the problem was that he started the company while his father was still alive, who then sadly passed away just as Mondial was taking shape. This left Roberto in complete charge of their family company Lastra, just at the moment he was turning it into a world player by taking over Mitsubishi’s operation. This meant he literally didn’t have any spare time to devote to looking after Mondial - and the management he put in place to run the company in his place, frankly weren’t up to it. They were really incompetent, and let him down badly even though there was no shortage of money to put into making it work.
 
I looked at Mondial to see if it was viable, and concluded that in its then form, it wasn’t - the prices were too expensive, it didn’t have a proper distribution network, the organisation of the factory was very poor, and production was sporadic. But I was convinced the product was a very good one which just needed to be properly manufactured, and professionally marketed, especially with Mondial having such a long history and a famous sporting pedigree. I spent quite some time with Count Boselli, the son of the owner, and his main interest is that Mondial should survive, rather than be split up and sold off and disappear for ever. I believe he understood that I had the vision and the intent to make Mondial a name to be proud of once again, and take it to a new level, so I was able to make an agreement with him to lease the rights to the marque for thirty years, with a renewable option.
 
Based on all this, and with the support of the Boselli family, I decided to make an offer to the liquidator in September last year, which was both realistic and based on a sound business plan - and I’m glad to say that out of the three bids he received, mine was the one accepted, even though it was apparently not the largest in money terms. That’s because, rather than asset-stripping Arcore as at least one of the other offers was targeted at doing, mine was founded on revamping the company along sound business lines and restarting production, aiming to deliver reliable, appealing motorcycles to customers around the world via a proper dealer network. On February 28th the bankruptcy court signed the documents confirming that my company, Super Bike Racing, is the new owner of Mondial SpA.
 
AC: Since it’s a matter of public record, how much did you pay for those rights?
 
AW: I’m not at liberty to reveal that at this time, but will gladly do so when I’m allowed to. But I confirm I am now the full owner of the rights to the Mondial marque, and the Arcore factory and its contents, including the intellectual rights to the Piega as well as the Nuda and Starfighter prototypes.
 
AC: How much money in total do you envisage investing in Mondial during the next three years, including acquisition costs?
 
AW: We have substantial financing that is more than sufficient to purchase, develop and operate Mondial during the next five years - not three. We’re adequately funded - and then some.
 
AC Does any of that financing emanate from a previous owner of Mondial - such as Roberto Ziletti, for example?
 
AW: None at all - we have turned a completely fresh page in the company’s history.
 
AC: OK - but don’t you risk falling into the same trap as so many other entrepreneurs who want to bring an illustrious trophy marque back to life again, and letting your heart rule your head? Is a small company like Mondial really capable of surviving in today’s marketplace?
 
AW: Yes it can, provided the products are desirable, individual and well-priced - as I believe the Piega has the potential to be, and especially the Nuda, which is capable of putting Mondial well and truly on the map. The more I’ve got involved with the company, the more I’ve come to appreciate its potential to be extremely successful - take the first problem, which is pricing. I’ve completely rechecked the Piega’s production costs, based on firm prices from all our suppliers, and based on this we can cut manufacturing budgets by no less than 40% - Ziletti’s management didn’t just have blunt pencils, they must have been using their fingers to count with! That’s without in any way altering the quality of the product - keeping it at the same level, with the same calibre of components, just negotiating proper prices and doing our sums better.
 
I then looked at the the Nuda, which has been stillborn since it was launched at Milan 2003. Costing that on the same realistic basis made me understand this is a fantastic bike which can be very well priced, yet will be both profitable and viable - it’ll make a serious impact on the marketplace. The ingredients are all there for Mondial to do well.
 
AC: Will you continue selling the Piega just as it was launched back in 2002, just adding the Nuda as its streetrod spinoff - rather like MV Agusta, with the F4 and Brutale?
 
AW: No - we need to make some major changes to the product line. The Nuda is a great concept, and Thierry Henriette of Boxer Design did a brilliant job in creating it - but it needs some detail changes before it can enter production. I spent three days with Thierry in Toulouse finalising this, and we’ve changed the headlamps to stop it looking quite so quirky, plus the Honda instruments have been replaced by a dedicated dashboard, the rear suspension has been repositioned, we needed larger mirrors - all minor stuff. We won’t produce the Starfighter that was launched alongside it - I personally think it looks grotesque, but aside from that, we don’t have any positive feedback from the marketplace on it, so we’ll shelve it. That’s not how a Mondial should look - whereas the Nuda is a bullseye. It’ll also be affordable, in a major departure from Mondial’s previous price structure. We’re planning to sell the Nuda for $13,500 in the USA, and euro 9,250 in Europe - these are all tax-free prices, by the way. Our intent is to be competitive on price as well as on performance and desirability with what’s already out there in the marketplace, but without compromising on quality or specification.
 
The Piega is going to have a major revamp, to freshen it up and broaden its appeal, though still with the same tubular steel chassis. But it will use Honda SP-2 V-twin engines from now on, same as the one Colin Edwards won the World Superbike title with, rather than the older SP-1 engine which the existing Piega has, and which’ll be used in the Nuda until our existing stock of around 250 Honda engines is exhausted. After that, we’ll fit the SP-2 motor, but the price will have to rise slightly to reflect that. I have renewed Mondial’s agreement with Honda, who are very supportive of our efforts, now they can see the company is being properly managed, and the existing contract is valid until 2008.
 
But first of all we need a more favourably priced entry-level model, the Piega Strada, selling for $18,500 or euro 16,795 in Europe, to let us compete effectively with our rivals in the marketplace. The Strada will only be available in red, and it’ll have a steel or plastic gas tank rather than the present bike’s aluminum one, plus a brand-new box-section GP-style aluminium swingarm, and though it’ll retain the Ohlins shock at the rear, it won’t have Ohlins forks - just a very good set of Italian upside-down forks. Most of the alloy components will be high-quality cast rather than CNC-machined from solid, and the bodywork will be GRP rather than carbon-fibre, plus it’s being largely restyled with a revised fairing incorporating a deep vee to the windshield, and foxeye twin headlamps instead of the present small single unit. This redesign is being handled by Thierry Henriette, who we’ll use for all our styling in future - that magnificent Boxer VB1 he made a few years ago with a Voxan engine shows he has nothing to learn from more famous designers in producing a beautiful-looking bike, plus having been a small-volume manufacturer himself, he understands exactly the challenges a company like Mondial must face. I’m very glad to be working with him so closely.
 
AC: Will there be other versions of the Piega with the same basic Boxer Design restyling?
 
AW: Yes, indeed. We’re also working on the Piega 2, and this will also have an Evo spinoff that’ll be the top of the range Mondial aimed at the 999R and MV Ago. Both of these models  will feature CNC-machined alloy components, Ohlins forks, carbon bodywork and an aluminum gas tank, while the Evo will have a dry slipper clutch, trick exhaust system and high-performance engine delivering around 150 bhp, with higher compression, different camshafts and probably bigger valves in a ported head - quite a lot of work was done on this during Ziletti’s ownership, even if they never managed to do anything with it! We realise the engine management system is the heartbeat of a modern motorcycle, as much as the motor itself, so we’ll have a dedicated ECU fitted to all Mondial models which has already been specially developed for us by a small but very advanced Italian specialist supplier. The Piega 2 will be sold in two colours - Mondial’s traditional blue and silver paint scheme, and yellow and silver - and will retail for $22,000 in the USA and around euro 20,000 over here, while the Evo version will cost $29,000 - we don’t have a price set for it in Europe yet.
 
AC: Do you see Mondial using Honda engines indefinitely?
 
AW: Until at least 2008 on the Piega and Nuda, yes, but we have plans to launch a brand-new model in 2007 which will be powered by a 990cc V5 engine. It’s going to be a very expensive, very beautiful, very exotic and very fast motorcycle carrying the Mondial name, which’ll have the best of everything, and set new standards for the sportbike category.
 
AC: Will this be a V5 motor you’re developing yourselves, or is it an existing MotoGP engine that’s being adapted for use in a Mondial streetbike?
 
AW: It already exists, and will be adapted for our purposes.
 
AC: Well, if it’s presumably not a street version of the Honda RC211V, which it’s hard to imagine Honda letting you have before they use it themselves - if ever! - that leaves only the Proton V5 engine which Kenny Roberts’ team created in Britain to race in MotoGP with in 2004! Is that the one - especially since it’s been superceded by the KTM V4 motor?
 
AW: I’m not at liberty to disclose further anything at this time.
 
AC: Looks like Mondial has an exciting future! How is the company going to be restructured, and when do you plan to start production?
 
AW: I’ve decided as a non-Italian unfamiliar on a day-to-day basis with the country’s management techniques, that the best thing is to import a structure I’m familiar with, so Mondial will be a company based in Italy, but will employ American and Japanese business techniques via executives experienced in the motorcycle industry at a senior level, who I’ve already signed up to come and help me run Mondial. This works perfectly well in other industries, so why not with motorcycles?
 
We’re going to take three months to completely restructure the company and set everything in place, before getting ready to restart production and open up for business. We also need to test the new and revised models very extensively, and are in no hurry to get production going again until that’s done properly. We want to get the product right, to get the manufacturing side structured correctly, to set up a distribution network that means customers can buy a Mondial in confidence - and we have to do a lot of work on revamping our website. There’s lots to do, but we’re eager to get started. We’ll relaunch the marque formally at the Milan Show in November, when we’ll have all the new models on display, as well as the V5 engine and a very special commemorative version of the Piega Evo which I don’t want to reveal anything more about at this stage.
 
AC: What are the projections in your business plan for production numbers?

AW: They’re very rational. We plan to manufacture 500 bikes in the first twelve months, for the 2006 model year. We believe 70% of Mondial’s production will be of the Nuda - not just because it’s the lowest-priced model, but because the streetfighter category is really taking off, and we know we have a great product for it. We don’t intend to increase production levels significantly beyond that first year - we’re looking at 650 bikes in 2007, and maybe 750 the year after. But we can’t afford to over-produce, and certainly don’t plan to hold any significant inventory - we will manufacture to meet demand. The most important thing is to be realistic about what our customers are looking for, and to maintain quality in meeting that. I can’t see the advantage on over-producing a prestige product, as Mondial undoubtedly is and will continue to be.
 
AC: I visited the factory last year, and with the cobwebs gathering over a frozen production line, it seemed were quite a few bikes almost completed and some that already were, just waiting to be crated. Will you get these finished off and shipped out to clear the decks - just as the new owners of Bimota are trying to do with their Suzuki-powered V-twins?
 
AW: We thought of doing this, to help with cashflow, but decided against it. We’ll strip them for parts, and stick them back on the shelf to be reused where appropriate - I’m only interested in turning a page and selling new Mondials, not obsolete product at cut prices.
 
AC: How far along are you in setting up distribution - and where are you targeting sales first?

AW: I believe Mondial’s entire future depends on making a successful mark in North America, so that’s what we’ll be focusing on up front. We already have a network of 20 dealers signed up in the USA, and we anticipate selling up to 350 bikes a year there - we’ll be promoting them very heavily, though the local specialist magazines, at AMA Superbike race meetings, and so on. We’re going all out to have a US version of the Nuda and Piega Strada fully EPA’d and ready for production by September this year.
 
AC: Mention of AMA Superbike brings us to the inevitable question. Since Mondial’s entire prestige as a brand comes directly from its success in racing, do you have any plans to return Mondial to the racetrack?
 
AW: Very definitely. World Superbike has shown itself to have a long-term future, and the control tyre rule has completely levelled the playing field, so this is undoubtedly the way to go for any manufacturer in effectively promoting sports motorcycles it wants to sell to the general public. We intend to race in World Superbike with a Mondial factory team, and have provisionally set the 2008 season as our target for doing so, at least with some wild card rides. For sure we aim to join in full time in 2009.
 
AC: Will this be with the existing V-twin, or your projected V5?
 
AW: It will not be with a V-twin.
 
AC: Do you envisage Mondial producing motorcycles with a number of cylinders between two and five - for example, will you try to persuade Honda to supply you with the CBR1000RR Fireblade engine to create a four-cylinder Mondial?

AW: No, we won’t. Mondial is a marque which thrived in the past on being different from other brands - it won GP races and world titles with four-stroke 125 singles when all others raced with two-strokes, and it was constantly at the leading edge of motorcycle design, with the desmo prototype, with disc brakes, with streamlining and bodywork design, and so on. Mondial must retain that individuality in the modern era, and any new bike bearing our company’s name must be entirely different from anything else - hence the V5. So, no in-line four-cylinder Mondial - it’s hard to do one better than the Japanese, anyway. We want to be different, but we also want to be very exciting. We’re looking at a wonderful future for Mondial - we have the right people on board, the right products both now and further down the line, and the right way of doing business, with the right prices. Now we need the right customers!
 
NOTE: Because of his unexpected visit to my home while he was visiting family nearby, which provided the basis for this interview, the three ‘portraits’ of Andrew Wright on this photo-CD are of poor quality - I shot them! But, Kyoichi Nakamura will be shooting proper portraits of AW on his next visit to the UK on March 22. If you would like me to email these to you, please tell me.

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MONDIAL’S HISTORY: Past Perfect, Future Positive

One of the dozens of small motorcycle manufacturers which flourished in post-WW2 Italy, Bologna-based Mondial set itself apart from its rivals by winning ten road racing World Championships in the 125cc and 250cc Grand Prix classes between 1949 and 1957 - five riders crowns, and five manufacturers titles in just eight years, during which the forward- looking bike company was the first to develop a disc brake, as well as the prototype of today’s streamlined fairings. Designed by Alfonso Drusiani, the little Mondial singles featuring the same bevel-gear drive to the twin overhead camshafts which would later become a trademark of their Ducati rivals, turned convention on its head by defeating the lightweight two-strokes which already then predominated in the smaller road racing classes. By no coincidence, legendary Ducati designer Fabio Taglioni worked for two years at Mondial under Drusiani, before moving across Bologna to the rival Ducati factory in 1954. Indeed, inspired by that year’s Formula 1 world title-winning desmo Mercedes-Benz engines, it was actually Mondial which designed its own prototype desmodromic motorcycle engine, before any Ducati ever featured positive valve operation.
 
So advanced was the design of its little GP racers that Mondial went three full seasons without ever being beaten in the 125cc class, and though their MV Agusta and NSU rivals enjoyed a brief spell of supremacy, in 1957 the company bounced back to scoop both 125cc and 250cc GP world titles in the same year, thanks to flamboyant Italian Tarquinio Provini (125) and British ace Cecil Sandford (250). But at the end of that season, Count Giuseppe Boselli - who founded the Mondial company pre-WW2 in collaboration with his three brothers, hence the marque’s full correct title of ‘F.B. Mondial’, standing for ‘Fratelli Boselli’ - pulled Mondial out of GP racing in conjunction with Moto Guzzi and Gilera, in a secret deal between the three companies which that year had collectively won all four GP solo world titles. Though it continued to remain a bit player in the Italian bike market, Mondial was only ever a hobby for the aristocratic Boselli family, whose main income came from huge estates in the countryside south of Milan. The firm never built any bikes larger than 250cc, and its sporadic existence wound down in the late ‘60s with a range of 50cc mopeds which Boselli promoted by sponsoring the Villa brothers in Italian races aboard their self-built two-stroke specials, rechristened Mondials even though the company’s own race shop had been shut down back in 1958. But a decade ago the marque resurfaced, when Count Boselli’s eldest son Pierluigi, developed a competitive KTM-engined Mondial Supermono racer, as well as a prototype range of stillborn 125cc two-stroke streetbikes, which never made it into volume production. The marque died another death - until Roberto Ziletti came on the scene.....

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