KTM majority shareholder Bajaj Auto has revealed plans to cut its workforce by 50%, which is set to impact its MotoGP operations.
The Indian company provided significant investment to help the Austrian manufacturer out of its financial crisis in late 2024 and is awaiting approval from the European Commission to formalise its takeover.
Bajaj’s managing director Rajiv Bajaj stated in an interview that it intends to halve expenses across various departments, which will directly affect KTM and Tech3’s MotoGP teams.
“This is really low-hanging fruit. We observe an opportunity to reduce overheads by more than 50 per cent, including R&D, marketing (including racing), operations, and general administration,” Bajaj told CNBC TV18.
“The previous management has already reduced headcount from 6,000 to 4,000, which is still considered too high.
“Interestingly, of these 4,000, only about 1,000 are blue-collar; 3,000 are white-collar, which is perplexing because the blue-collar employees make the motorcycles.
“Future volume shifts will impact blue-collar employees relatively lightly; the issue will be with expensive white-collar headcount.
“It reminds me of Mark Zuckerberg’s words about managers managing managers managing managers who manage the people who do the work.
“The management overhead and bureaucracy in this otherwise excellent organisation were astonishing.”
Bajaj was also critical about KTM’s former management, but did not explicitly name Stefan Pierer who he deemed responsible for the manufacturer’s collapse.
However, Bajaj voiced confidence in KTM’s new management structure implemented earlier this year.
“What we have now in place is a wonderful new team that I personally feel very confident about,” Bajaj said.
“The entire team is already in place, barring one vacancy, which will be filled in the coming months.
“It’s a combination of some of our older colleagues, who are still very passionate and committed to KTM and some outstanding new colleagues, led by our new CFO and new CHRO.”
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