Royal Enfield has just hired Pierre Terblanche who has previously worked at Ducati. He is also responsible for the mad yet awesome Confederate X132 Hellcat Speedster!
India companies sure have the right type of hiring going on, after Hero MotoCorp hired ex-BMW designer Markus Braunsperger to head its R&D operations, it’s now Royal Enfield which makes big news for hiring Pierre Terblanche as its new chief of design. This is some news because the expertise of Mr. Pierre is vast. He has worked in Cagiva Ducati, Moto Guzzi, Noron and Confederate Motors before joining Royal Enfield (necessarily in that order). To his credit are the designs of the Hypermotard, Supermono, Multistrada, 749 and 999 for Ducati while the Confederate X132 Hellcat was also done by him.
Pierre Terblanche hails from South Africa and has also designed boats in the past. His design journey started with Volkswagen and since then there has been no looking back. His appointment at Royal Enfield comes at a crucial time as the Bullet maker looks at entering newer markets and making its presence stronger in existing markets where it has recently made in-roads. The company wants to be the leader in the middle-weight segment and currently doesn’t have any upcoming products lined up.
Royal Enfield will also face tough competition as more and more automakers try their hand in the middle-weight segment which is currently dominated by the Chennai based company. Rumours of a twin-cylinder bike from the makers of the Thunderbird and Classic range of bikes has been doing the rounds since quite sometime now.
With sales going well and demand being at its peak, Royal Enfield recently announced its plans to set-up its third plant in the country, resulting in an investment of Rs. 57 crores. This isn’t the first time the Eicher Motors owned firm has made a big recruit, earlier this year it hired Red Copes as its President for North America. Mr. Copes was the global sales head for Harley-Davidson before he joined the Indian company.
