BOLOGNA, Italy (BRAIN) Thursday July 12 2012 11:15 AM MT—Marzocchi forks will be assembled by Hodaka in Taiwan starting in October this year, the company announced Thursday.
The company also announced that it has hired Anthony Trujillo as its sales and product manager for the U.S., Canada and South America. Trujillo has worked for X-Fusion, Fox and Specialized and consulted with several other suspension brands.
Marzocchi's fork assembly plans had been uncertain since the Italian brand and its long-time Asian assembler, SR Suntour, ended their relationship earlier this year, after negotiations for SR Suntour to buy the brand ended. The disruption caused Marzocchi to lose much of its 2013 model year OE sales.
Hodaka already assembles Marzocchi's rear shocks. The forks and shock components continue to be manufactured by the same suppliers in Asia, Marzocchi's Andrea Pierantoni told BRAIN.
Marzocchi is owned by Tenneco, a $7.2 billion publicly traded company based in Illinois. Tenneco's primary business is automobile parts, including suspension and emissions equipment.
Marzocchi said it would share Tenneco's supply chain, industrialization and distribution skills with Hodaka to create a "flex production" system that will shorten time to marked and improve product quality, availability and reliability.
Trujillo takes over leadership of Marzocchi's American operations following the departure of its long-time leader, Bryson Martin, in May.
Trujillo joins Marzocchi from X-Fusion, where he was engineering and product manager. Prior to that he was a senior suspension engineer at Specialized for nearly three years and held the same position at Fox Racing Shox for about nine years.
