Yamaha took three world titles on Sunday, Ben Spies in WSBK, Valentino Rossi in MotoGP and Cal Crutchlow in Supersport and that’s not counting James Stewart’s World Supercross title or Leon Camier’s title in BSB, but Yamaha is still deeply in the red and the prospects are not looking good.
While Yamaha Motor Italy at Gerno di Lesmo were still celebrating Ben Spies, where his winning Yamaha R1 comes from, the company on Tuesday announced they were closing down their production line and moving it to Spain and have fired 66 workers out of 200, including Claudio Consonni head of production and the Superbike project.
A Yamaha USA press release, always on Tuesday, announced that they’re redirecting their road racing and motocross and supercross efforts for the 2010 season and had to eliminate some internal race department positions at Yamaha’s Cypress headquarters.
While Yamaha Italy and USA announced their changes, from Japan came the news that the current Yamaha President, Chief Executive Officer and Representative Director, Takashi Kajikawa has resigned from his post and the current Director and Chairman Tsuneji Togami will take his place November 1st.
The Japanese motorcycle maker reported a net loss of 74.
71 billion yen ($783.
7 million) for the January-June period, compared with a profit of 25.
85 billion yen that the company posted in the same period a year earlier.
Yamaha expects a net loss of 182 billion yen in 2009.
The projected number is considerably worse than its previous forecast for a loss of 42 billion yen and this is the probable reason why Kajikawa has stepped down.