Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. announces that its wholly-owned European manufacturing site in Saint Quentin, France, previously known as MBK Industrie S.A.S. (MBK), has been re-named Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe S.A.S. (YMME).
The establishment of the re-naming, consented to by the Work Council at MBK, into YMME has been part of Yamaha Motor’s long-term vision and reinforces its commitment to a local European manufacturing as a competitive and sustainable advantage.
YMME will continue its diversification into a multi-products factory and towards the electric mobility. Already for many years, this site has been manufacturing Yamaha flagship models such as the Ténéré 700, MT-125 and XMAX, assembling the new range of Yamaha eBikes and customizing Yamaha’s Powered Two-Wheelers and ATVs for European-specific needs.
The introduction of the Ténéré Extreme and Ténéré Explore November last is the most recent proof of the factory’s capabilities, while as announced earlier, YMME will also start to produce eDrive units for OEM customers in March 2024.
MBK has been a wholly-owned Yamaha subsidiary since 1986. It has been a great journey from Motobécane to MBK Industrie and now Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe. This ultimate integration of YMME into the Yamaha Motor Group marks a new era of the factory’s history where it will continue to reinforce its vital role in Yamaha’s operations in Europe.
It is with a lot of emotion that I see the evolution of MBK Industrie into Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe. I started my career at MBK 30 years ago and all these years, I have been paying special attention to MBK. The operations and product line-up have been continuously evolving to reach today a high level of excellence allowing production of Yamaha flagship models in this factory. This has been possible with the involvement and efforts of all the employees during the last 40 years. I would like to express my appreciation and to thank all of them. Looking forward, it became clear that it is now time to change the name to Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe. More than a symbolic move, it is a clear recognition for the company within the Yamaha Motor Group and it will support to embrace a wider range of Yamaha products. Finally, as an ex-MBK employee, I am very proud to say to my YMME colleagues that we are finally all “Yamaha employees” now. Let’s continue to move forward using our Yamaha local manufacturing as a competitive and sustainable advantage!
— Olivier Prévost, President & CEO – Yamaha Motor Europe N.V
The re-naming of MBK into Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe is an important recognition of the efforts made by all employees during the last years to transform the company to be able to produce Yamaha flagship models such as the Ténéré 700cc family. We continuously benchmark our quality standard and method with our mother factory in Iwata, to be able to achieve similar quality levels. We believe that our facility in Europe will be a key asset for Yamaha in the eMobility to respond to the zero carbon neutrality requirement for local manufacturing. Today, after 100 years of existence under Motobécane and MBK, we are very proud to join the Yamaha family completely and to become Yamaha employees.
— Patrice Maciejewski, President, Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Europe S.A.S.
