Moto Guzzi - Factory, Company Headquarters and Museum

Factory, Company Headquarters and Museum

Since 1921, Moto Guzzi headquarters have been located in Mandello del Lario on the Lecco branch of Lake Como. The facility began at a size of 300 m2 (3,200 sq ft), and by the early 1950s Moto Guzzi covered 24,000 m2 (260,000 sq ft) with a workforce of over 1,500. As of 1999, the complex included one, two and three story buildings of over 54,000 m2 (580,000 sq ft), operating at approximately 50% of production capacity.

During its ownership tenure, Aprilia considered moving the entire operation to Monza, under protest from the Guzzisti and Mandello factory workers. Instead, Aprilia renovated the factory in 2004 at a cost of $45 million.

The original Mandello site remains home to the company's headquarters, the production facility, the historic wind tunnel, the company library, and the museum. The Moto Guzzi Museum displays models from the company's history, engines that retrace Guzzi's engineering history, and a series of important prototypes. The museum is open to the public, and includes a gift shop featuring books, clothing and accessories. Moto Guzzi currently employs roughly 250 to 300 employees, making over 10,000 bikes per year.

For decades, the Moto Guzzi factory carried a set of internally lit block letters along the rooftop (and also over the entry gate) spelling "Moto Guzzi". In May 2007, the original roof sign, old and worn, was replaced with a new brighter sign carrying the current official logo and script. At the same time, the factory entrance gate received a new rectangular version of the sign.

Read more about this topic:  Moto Guzzi

Famous quotes containing the words company, headquarters and/or museum:

    ... possibly there is no needful occupation which is wholly unbeautiful. The beauty of work depends upon the way we meet it—whether we arm ourselves each morning to attack it as an enemy that must be vanquished before night comes, or whether we open our eyes with the sunrise to welcome it as an approaching friend who will keep us delightful company all day, and who will make us feel, at evening, that the day was well worth its fatigues.
    Lucy Larcom (1824–1893)

    What does headquarters think these guys came over here for, a sewing circle? They go up playing for keeps. Cops and robbers with rocks in the snowballs. Brass knuckles and lead pipes and a roughneck conviction they can lick any man in the world.
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)

    A rat eats, then leaves its droppings.
    Hawaiian saying no. 85, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)