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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts Radio News that.

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Speaker 2: We want to shift gears here and talk about motorcycles

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Speaker 2: because the iconic Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, announcing that the

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Speaker 2: company's revenue came in at one in at over one

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Speaker 2: billion euros. Rather that is the second consecutive year that

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Speaker 2: was thanks to strong sales. And I'm thrilled to welcome

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Speaker 2: now Claudio Domenicali. He is the Ducati CEO. He is

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Speaker 2: joining us from the company's headquarters in Italy and Claudio,

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Speaker 2: it's great to have you with me.

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Speaker 1: So you hit the one billion euro mark again.

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Speaker 2: Of course you also had twenty twenty threes operating result

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Speaker 2: come in at one hundred and twelve million euro your

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Speaker 2: best ever. Break that down for us. What is fueling

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Speaker 2: some of those numbers.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of of course reassuring. It shows that

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Speaker 3: really our products are liked by the Pachelan Ducatisti. We

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Speaker 3: are generating their source which actually needed to continue our

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Speaker 3: development plan. We have a lot to do for keeping

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Speaker 3: the momentum, so there is a lot of investment that

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Speaker 3: we are doing for the product development for the future.

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Speaker 4: There are a lot of.

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Speaker 3: Technology to be actually developed in order to remain competitive,

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Speaker 3: and so it's kind of reassuring that actually we are

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Speaker 3: generating that resort and we are in such a way

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Speaker 3: financially strong in order to make that plan viable.

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Speaker 2: I do want to talk about input costs here because

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Speaker 2: I spoke to the CEO of Diamond Trucks yesterday actually,

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Speaker 2: and it sounds like it's a bit of a wash

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Speaker 2: for them. You have some costs going down, others have

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Speaker 2: risen when it comes actually building your motorcycles. What does

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Speaker 2: it look like when it comes to the cost of

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Speaker 2: raw materials versus last couple of years.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, actually that is a bit better in a way.

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Speaker 3: Energy price was very very high in the past and

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Speaker 3: also row material increase. The actually that it's a bit

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Speaker 3: of a relief now is not yet europe energy price

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Speaker 3: going back to what it was before the COVID period.

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Speaker 3: But actually it's for sure better and so that it's

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Speaker 3: helping in order to keep the proper balance between prices

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Speaker 3: and margin. And actually we are in a strategy we

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Speaker 3: call raise the bar. So actually we are targeting much

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Speaker 3: more profitability than volume and that so it's very important

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Speaker 3: we can keep that balance between prices and cost.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So a bit of relief when it comes to

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Speaker 2: input costs. Let's talk about financing costs though, because of.

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Speaker 1: Course they're quite high.

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Speaker 2: They're starting to come down, but still at from this

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Speaker 2: high level. How does that affect your high end motor brands.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's of course financing.

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Speaker 3: It's important for retail and so in many countries even

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Speaker 3: higher end motorcycle are both on financing, so that make

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Speaker 3: it more difficult in a way. But as you have

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Speaker 3: the advantage of having a very higher resale you for

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Speaker 3: our products, so once you make the difference between what

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Speaker 3: you pay with a brand new vehicle and what you

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Speaker 3: can get after three actually that is for sure an advantage.

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Speaker 3: So we are not suffering too much on that point.

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Speaker 3: And actually when it comes to the company, we have

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Speaker 3: the luxury of being cash positive and so that it's

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Speaker 3: not impacting our P and L because actually, if anything,

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Speaker 3: we get an advantage over there at the cost of

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Speaker 3: capital which is being raised.

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Speaker 2: All right, appreciate the context there, and I am also

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Speaker 2: really interested in your relationship with your parent company. Of course,

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Speaker 2: you've been owned by Volkswagen since twenty twelve.

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Speaker 1: How has working as a.

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Speaker 2: Volkswagen company changed over that time period?

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Speaker 1: Those fourteen years or so.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of of course, it's somehow sometimes complicated

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Speaker 3: because actually dimensioned are very very different. We are kind

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Speaker 3: of two thousand people company, which is completely different than

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Speaker 3: six hundred and eighty thousand the whole group, and so

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Speaker 3: sometimes are a bit more complicated. But on the other

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Speaker 3: side there is a very strong solidity. And actually the

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Speaker 3: other very positive things is that we are managing directly

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Speaker 3: without it, which actually the company that managed directly to

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Speaker 3: cut and actually now you have people that understand pretty

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Speaker 3: much what it is how to manage a brand like

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Speaker 3: to cut in how much products are important for us

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Speaker 3: so much. It's important that actually we are keeping being innovative,

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Speaker 3: we keeping being Italian, and so this flavor and this

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Speaker 3: means that actually we have been helped in develop the

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Speaker 3: company properly. The company is the best shape ever. We

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Speaker 3: are coming to be one under the year of History

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six. So we have a kind of

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Speaker 3: long heritage, but we have a fantastic president and we

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Speaker 3: like to see that we are building our future.

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Speaker 4: So also a lot of that has to be.

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Speaker 3: Thank to the current shared order that actually has helped

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Speaker 3: a lot the brand to develop and to work on

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Speaker 3: many many spect like for example, product quality.

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Speaker 4: Now is it best?

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Speaker 3: We have made a lot of investment actually in order

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Speaker 3: to make sure that really that is completely out of discussion.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a really interesting dynamic, like you said, a

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Speaker 2: complicated relationship. But Dukatti can keep being Italian. I am

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Speaker 2: curious how much is Dukatti able to collaborate with some

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Speaker 2: of the under other brands that are also under Volkswagen.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a very positive part.

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Speaker 3: Actually, we are in what we call the Progressive brand group,

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Speaker 3: which is under the umbrello of Audi, so it's Audi, Dukatti,

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Speaker 3: Lamborghini and Bentley, and that is a lot. We have

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Speaker 3: very close relationship with Lamborghinia that are kind of we

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Speaker 3: are thirty two meters one from the other in the

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Speaker 3: same region, which actually is the motor Valley here in

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Speaker 3: amiliar Mania. And then we are very close friends all

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Speaker 3: with Bentley, and that made possible that in the last

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Speaker 3: couple of years we make a special version we make

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Speaker 3: one of our street fighters, which is our strip down

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Speaker 3: Panigale in Lamborghini Tree and that was a fantastic successor

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Speaker 3: six hundred and thirty units plus sixty three special only

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Speaker 3: for a Lamborghini customer, and then we replicate one year

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Speaker 3: later with Bentley making a Ducati diabl for Bentley and

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Speaker 3: these are very special version, very high price, but collectors

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Speaker 3: love that because typically the resale value of the product

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Speaker 3: is higher and so it's not only a fantastic gifta

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Speaker 3: for passionate bikers, but which is a good investment.

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Speaker 2: And Claudia, I only have about a minute left with you,

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Speaker 2: but we have to talk about Moto GP because Ducati

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Speaker 2: one it's fourth street World title in twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: What has that meant for sales? Are you able to

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Speaker 2: get close to quantifying the impact there?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the kind of the killer question. You know,

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Speaker 3: I've been at many many times, and if I have

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Speaker 3: to be completely honest, it's very difficult to relate sales

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Speaker 3: with actually the result we're doing a racing. But for

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Speaker 3: sure there is a lot on prestige. Everything we do,

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Speaker 3: everything we measure and actually we keep monitoring. The brand

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Speaker 3: strength around the world has been Skia rocketing in the

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Speaker 3: last five years, you know, and for sure the result

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Speaker 3: that inmotogp and actually when we consider that we are

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Speaker 3: the only brand in the history in motorcycling that actually

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Speaker 3: won MotoGP and Superbike on the same Yeah, doing two

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Speaker 3: years in a row.

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Speaker 4: That was never happening before in history.

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Speaker 3: And so when you do something so big, all the

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Speaker 3: passionate bikers really understand and take that. The technology that

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Speaker 3: comes from the brand is so high, and so the

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Speaker 3: reputation is very very high.

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Speaker 2: Now, well, Claudio, best of what this year, really great

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Speaker 2: to speak with your thanks of course to Claudio Dominicalie

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Speaker 2: of Dukadi,