. through its Director of Marketing and Communication, Marc Arañó, He explains the situation of the company and the decisions that have led its main driver and nephew of the brand’s godfather, Pol Tarrés, to leave the structure to ride a Sherco for the next three seasons.
Jotagas has been on the market as a company (since the company was incorporated) for 2 and a half years and only 9 since the first motorcycle came off the assembly line;
PRODUCTION
In this period, we have manufactured and served 500 units, equivalent to more or less 10% market share, it could have been 1,000, we had the orders, but the set-up of the factory, its chain and the suppliers need time to consolidate and we are giving it to them.
Three people have been key to this, Félix Casas (Dtor. Produced by Claudi Obrador and Paco Roldán, who was, together with Jordi and from the beginning of Jotagas, the father of the motorcycle; It has been bad for us not to be able to supply customers and importers with all the quantities ordered, and what we have tried to do is to distribute them equitably among all of them and all the countries with which we work.
The 2013, in its current 3 displacements, is a bike that already offers excellent performance and we are not enough with the demands received from countries such as Japan, UK, Austria and Germany, France, etc …
ATHLETICALLY
On a sporting level, We have been able to be present with teams and importers in almost all the countries where the trial activity has a relevant weight. and considering that the bike had only been on the market for a short time, I was very positively surprised by the results obtained, starting precisely with Pol, as well as the title of champions in France with Sandrine Juffet and the support of Philipe Berlatier, several podiums in England with Ross Danby y Steve Saunders, and good results in countries such as Switzerland, Austria and Belgium and several classics titles with Jordi Pascuet y David Millan, more than enough to be proud of and to be calm and confident about the upcoming season.
On the latter issue, we still have time to see what approach we take; We will certainly maintain the current sports structures in each country and We’re evaluating whether or not we bet something stronger by taking a step forward or if on the contrary, We are giving ourselves a little more time, on this last issue, I repeat, we are evaluating it but we have not spoken to anyone, whatever the rumours say.
Our priority as a company is to consolidate production and maintain sports structures that cover minimum standards in each of the countries we work with
POL TARRÉS CASE
Regarding the issue of Pol; Sherco is a friendly brand, we have a great relationship with the majority of the people who are part of it, and we respect Pol’s decision; it is logical that this decision has raised rumors and words, however, we must say and affirm from Jotagas, that they have little to do with reality; Jordi is Jordi, Pol is Pol; Jordi’s mission in Jotagas is to evolve the bike and support the structure in its entirety, Pol’s, to train to compete and if possible win.
AndThe biggest problem has been that in Jotagas we have asked Pol not only to train, but also to collaborate with the set-up and evolution of the bike, without a doubt, a responsibility for which he is more than prepared, although he recognizes that this has taken time away from his main task, training and racing.
The economic issue,There are people who years ago thought other factories were dead (our comrades) and in the end reality always ends up imposing itself on fiction (in this case we could replace the word fiction with that of rumor, ignorance, lack of information, and in some cases and forgiving the expression “bad milk” J).
Regarding the brand’s future plans, at a business level, we plan to achieve a production of 2,000 trial units including the current three displacements (300, 280 and 250 cc) and the 125 that we will present before December 2012 and in which Claudi and Paco are working; On the other hand, and with regard to the Enduro model, we are still working on its development, we have three prototypes that work perfectly and it will also be in December when the company will show the final result of this project as I have been informed, although we cannot yet define the date on which production will start.
We are also developing an excursion model that will be born and based on the platform of our trial bike. With this product portfolio, we have expected to reach 4,000 units/year in 2015 and, in order to move forward with this business plan, we have the entire current team and mainly Jordi Tarrés.
From Jotagas we are very grateful to both Pol and his father for the constant support received from the first day for the Jotagas project.
And we wish him all the best, hoping that one day we will ask him to have him back on top of a “jack”.
Text: Marc Arañó, Director of Marketing and Communication at Jotagas.
