Marie travelled from afar, precisely from the USA, curious to see for herself where her 47 mm kit had been developed. We aren’t entirely sure what she expected from our headquarters, but it’s clear she didn’t imagine a bright, cheerful yellow building on the outskirts of Bologna, built around an olive tree. Here, she found focused engineers and designers in their offices, working alongside the sales and marketing teams in a dedicated wing.
She discovered that the Logistics and Production departments are all housed within this same facility; in the manufacturing area, robotic arms work with incredible precision, side-by-side with specialists who hand-finish and inspect each and every single part. In a quiet corner, at a workbench, she found a 94-year-old man calmly repairing a piece of machinery. It was Ugo Malossi himself who, amongst other things, still hand-picks the olives from the company tree once a year. He takes them to the oil press and returns with a few bottles of extra virgin olive oil, every bit as good as Malossi’s own components.
Different department, shared objectives
Cecilia, our export manager, guided Marie Kay through the facility, where Marie spotted a few whimsical details: on someone’s desk, there’s a paperclip holder that has been fashioned from a variator body. She chuckled and thought, “This could only happen at Malossi.” She met the export managers for various regions around the globe, chatted with employees in the Finance department, observed, listened, and asked an array of questions. This was her very first time seeing up-close the level of infrastructure and technology behind components that, outside these walls, many consider to be just “parts you fit to go faster.”
Her tour wound through the Shipping department, where Stefano and Fabrizio were busy packaging finished components, the largest of which ended up in our now-famous neon orange boxes.
We reached the Spare Parts counter: as orders came in, Alex picked them from the shelves and prepared them. Having worked here since the 1980s, he knew the inventory like the back of his hand. Marie asked him about a discontinued part: a liquid-cooled cylinder for the Honda Hobbit. Without a second thought, Alex headed to a cupboard filled with folders and pulled one out dated 1995. He opened it on the counter, turned to the “Honda Camino” section, which is what we call the Hobbit here in Italy, and there it was: our aftermarket cylinder. Alex entered the code into the computer and confirmed it was discontinued yet, curiously, there were still a few liquid-cooled heads lying around.
“Tell whoever is in charge that they need to start making those cylinders again,” Marie said. Cecilia replied: “Come on, let’s go and meet him – you can tell him yourself!”
That was how Marie entered a room filled with sensors, cables and instruments. This is where the engines are both tested and calibrated; it looked more like an operating theatre than a mechanic’s workshop. In another room, exhaust pipes and emissions were measured, while every power curve was meticulously studied on the test bench. Then everything came to a halt: it was time for lunch.
Sharing lunch, information and values
The canteen is a bright room with yellow tables, motorcycle magazines and people from different departments eating together, side-by-side. Marie sat down, looked around, and realised that this place worked so well because those who worked there met and shared ideas with one another.
After lunch, Cecilia accompanied Marie to an area packed to the rafters with scooters, Vespas and mopeds, including a “scooter-sledge”. They were all “Malossised” vehicles or reference models for new projects. Alessandra Malossi’s first moped was also there, a light blue Bravo boasting a Snoopy sticker, a reminder that while Malossi is a solid company, it is first and foremost a family that has always had a vision.
Her tour was almost over, but not before she admired the Malossi MVR and met Fabio, who had worked there since he was 13 and had been a friend of Andrea Malossi since childhood. She got rather excited as she asked him about the MP-ONE crankcase and the Big Bore for Vespa. Fabio nodded, went to the window, picked up an MP-ONE that was sitting there as if by chance, and answered her questions point by point, cross-referencing the information with the Malossi website, a goldmine of data in its own right. She became so immersed in the conversation that she forgot to ask him about the liquid-cooled cylinder for the Honda Camino. Never mind, she could always come back to visit us again and talk to him about it then.
