Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. in the Netherlands is the regional head office in Europe.
In 1961, we took on the challenge of competing in Europe – the historical home of motorsport, where motorcycle culture has a history that spans over a hundred years. From then on, Yamaha’s motorcycle imports were handled by importers in each country throughout the continent.
To facilitate and build upon the increased demand, Yamaha Japan established a subsidiary in the region. This marked the birth of Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. (YMENV) on 24th October 1968 in the Netherlands. Establishing a unified headquarters at YMENV stimulated the import of a wide range of Yamaha products such as motorcycles, outboard engines, snowmobiles and later, scooters, ATVs, Side-by-Side vehicles and many more. YMENV also helps to coordinate and support our racing activities in Europe.
YMENV also relays back to Yamaha Japan the full extent of European motorcycle culture, which significantly impacted product planning and development. A number of products that have won a place in history were brought about by this fusion of European culture and Japanese engineering. Our participation in both on-road and off-track Grand Prix World Championships – the pinnacle of the sport and the perfect place to nurture our inherited Yamaha Racing spirit – is a prime example of our activities in our pursuit of creating Kando.
To date, some of our day-one importers in the region are still part of the Yamaha family either as a subsidiary of YMENV, such as Sonauto (FR, 1966), which became Yamaha Motor France S.A. with the late Jean Claude Olivier as President and which is now a branch of the YMENV, or as an independent importer, like Danfay Limited (IE, since 1965) and Hostettler AG (CH, since 1968).
Over the years we expanded in the European market and extended to manufacturing products in the region. Entering the (West) German market – which had an established motorcycle culture, a historical connection with Yamaha and an important large-displacement motorcycle market – we formed sales company, Mitsui Maschinen GmbH (MMG), as a joint venture with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. However, to make communication with customers easier, as MMG dealt in Yamaha-related products, the company’s name was changed to Yamaha Motor Deutschland GmbH in 1996.
In 1981, we started a joint venture with Sociedad Española de Motocicletas S.A. (SEMSA) in Barcelona, Spain, which bought a factory where the first Spanish Yamaha model, the DT80MXS, rolled off the assembly line in September 1982. Unfortunately, immediately after its start, SEMSA experienced its first economic and company crisis. When Spain joined the EEC in 1987, we took full ownership and Yamaha Motor España S.A. was established.
As part of the Yamaha Motor Group’s industrial strategy, we began construction of a new factory in Spain. However, three years after the factory’s inauguration in 1988, it unfortunately burnt down in a fire. Thankfully, there were no human losses and thanks to a tremendous amount of dedication, a bigger and better factory was constructed in 11 months and reopened in 1992. For about two decades, this factory produced popular motorcycle and scooter models, like the Majesty 125 and the Neo’s 50cc scooters (among others).
The first motorcycle rolling off the assembly line at SEMSA, which was later named Yamaha Motor España S.A.in September, 1982.
MBK Industrie assembly line in Saint Quentin, France in July, 1987.
Following a request by the French Industrial Reconstruction Committee, we increased our business interest in France in September 1984 by buying MBK Industrie, a motorcycle manufacturer in the northeastern town of Saint Quentin in the North of France. It had been created to help the restructuring of Motobécane, a failed motorcycle manufacturer. After a management crisis at Motobécane, MBK Industrie became a fully-owned Yamaha subsidiary.
To rebuild MBK in three months-time, Yamaha joined forces with MBK managers in 1987 to improve production systems, quality control, plant maintenance and facilities while coaching MBK Industrie from the sidelines to improve the factory culture. This was no easy task considering the cultural differences between the two companies. Today, MBK Industrie manufactures European-designed and developed models and is a subsidiary of YMENV.
In May 1984, Yamaha made several bold advances in the Italian market. Yamaha formed a technical-assistance agreement with Motori Minarelli, a small engine manufacturer, to give local engine assembly for the DT125L/C. A year later, a similar arrangement was made with Belgarda S.p.A, a motorcycle sales company, regarding the manufacturing of bikes. In May 1986, the first DT125L/C, with a Motori Minarelli engine rolled off the assembly line at the Belgarda factory. Motori Minarelli became a member of the Yamaha Motor Group in 1989 when Yamaha took a 40% stake in the company, and in 2003 it became a wholly-owned YMENV subsidiary, still manufacturing and selling engines used in motorcycles, scooters and mopeds. In 2021, YMENV and Fantic Motor agreed on a deal to make Motori Minarelli a 100% subsidiary of Fantic Motor. In this way, the existing YMENV and Fantic Motor synergy has been further strengthened, bringing the collaboration between the two companies to the next level in the fields of motorcycle and e-mobility.
After the Italian government withdrew from the European monetary system in 1992, Yamaha raised its stake in Belgarda to 80%, making it a Yamaha Motor Group company as well, with Belgarda producing 600cc motorcycles. Belgarda changed its name to Yamaha Motor Italia S.p.A. (YMIT) in 2004, which nowadays operates marketing, sales and service activities in the Italian market. Even though the Italian factory stopped its operations in 2008, the Yamaha hub in Italy has continued to grow over the years, opening the European R&D centre (YMRE) in 2000, and establishing the European headquarters for Yamaha’s MotoGP Factory Racing operations in Gerno di Lesmo.
Buster SuperMagnum, one of Inha Works’ flagship models.
More recently, in 2017, we took a full interest in the boat manufacturing company, Inha Works Ltd. (IWL) in Finland to strengthen our leading position in the marine business. IWL manufactures, markets and sells Buster, Yamarin and Yamarin Cross branded boats powered by Yamaha outboard engines.
Improving productivity has always played a central role in Yamaha, and in the 1970s, we began developing industrial machinery to enhance our unique production technologies. As we refined our industrial-robots technology in Japan through ongoing Research & Development, we shared our industrial machinery products in the market worldwide.
The Yamaha YRM20, the most advanced components placement machine.
At the beginning of the 1980s, our intelligent machinery, incorporating Yamaha Robotics solutions for Surface Mount Technology and Factory Automation sections, became operational to best serve its customers globally. In 2016, Yamaha Motor Europe Intelligent Machinery (YMEIM) in Neuss, Germany became a branch of YMEVN. YMEIM continues to market Yamaha Robotics solutions and products throughout Europe.
To date, Yamaha is represented in over 40 European countries, employing more than 1,800 people. Although founded more than 65 years ago, we are always looking to spread “Kando” among European customers as well as for opportunities to expand the Yamaha business.