Back to competition

Back to competition

 

July has become the first month of the year… to compete. Following the emergence of the COVID pandemic, this has been the month of renting motorcycle and Side by Side tests where J. Juan has reaped spectacular successes.

The month began with the first two FIM CEV races, where J. Juan equips most Moto3 and Talent Cup bikes. In superbike training, Jonathan Rea and Ana Carrasco tried to conquer their respective world championships in their Kawasaki bikes with J. Juan as a badge.

Furthermore, we have the return of GP motorcycles, with an active presence in Real Avintia (MotoGP), Onexox (Moto2) and in several Moto3. We also have the Asian Championships where J. Juan made a full podium on July 17 in Malaysia.

The Side by Sides are also returning to form. Despite the suspension of two top tier events, the Lower Aragon (Spain) and the Silk Way Rally (Russia), more than 40 competitions will have taken place in the United States by the end of August.

The competition is back, and J. Juan is back there getting wins.

J.Juan’s strategy to adapt its China plant to the coronavirus

J.Juan’s strategy to adapt its China plant to the coronavirus

 THE CATALONIAN COMPANY’S FACTORY IN JIAXING IS OPERATING AT 25% CAPACITY DUE TO LACK OF PERSONNEL. ITS TOP PRIORITIES ARE TO RE-ESTAPBLISH NORMAL PRODUCTIION AND TO PREVENT ANY CASES OF COVID-19 IN THE FACTORY AT ANY COST

Jaume Rosinés Juan landed in Barcelona on the 20th of January to spend the Chinese New Year holiday. He has been in charge of the motorcycle brake systems and hoses manufacturing plant in China since 2014, and for the last few days has been running the business from Barcelona. “I’ll return to China the day I don’t have to go through quarantine”, he said. For the moment he does not have a return ticket.

New Year is a time of uncertainty in China: staff go to their homes, their home towns, but you don’t know if they’ll be back”, Rosinés explains, because in Chinese homes there is a sort of “competition” among family members to see who makes the most money or has the best car, “as a status symbol”, and this often results in changes in employment after the New Year celebrations.

Given this disruptive factor, companies frequently provide themselves with supplies for a longer period of time than usual in order to restart production with the fewest possible problems. Things should have returned to normal on the 3rd of February, but J.Juan’s plant, located in Jiaxing, in the Zhejian province (about 800 kilometres from Wuhan, where the focal point of the virus is), went back into operation on the 10th of February, although with hardly any production.

Mr. Rosinés himself – son of María Ángeles Juan, one o the three siblings who own J.Juan, is for the moment managing the China factory from Gavà (Baix Llobregat), the company’s headquarters.

 

Daily Monitoring

“We’ve been holding daily monitoring meetings since the 25th of January, when we saw that they were starting to isolate the residents, says Rosinés in an interview with EXPANSIÓN Catalunya, in which he explains that they have had to obtain “Government authorization” to resume production and he emphasizes that their priorities, for now, are two: “Recover production capacity and prevent cases of the coronavirus in the factory”.

“Now we are working at 25%, although nobody has managed to go over 30%, the problem is that I don’t know when we can get back to 100%; for the moment our problem is more a lack of personnel than o supplies”, he adds. “Whoever moves from one province to another has to go through quarantine, which forces you to hire people from the city itself (3.3 million inhabitants), but kindergartens, schools and universities have postponed the entrance of students until March or April, which makes it difficult for people to return to work; you have to pay an incentive so that they resume work quickly”, he comments.

Added to all this are the large companies with plants in the city itself, like Philips, Lego, ZF and Hyosung, who had recently planned to resume their activity and have started looking for staff in the area.

 

Safety

The company has introduced a catalogue of twenty procedures to prevent cases of Covid-19. Some examples are that lorry drivers may not get out of the vehicle – others unload it-, teleworking in some cases, special cleaning of communal areas, shifts to reduce the concentration of staff, eating is not permitted in the factory and safety distances among people. Staff also change their masks every three or four hours.

Rosinés underlines the need for there to be no cases of coronavirus. “They can close the factory, and that would be for three weeks, minimum”, he warns. The company, because it is foreign, has someone who acts as a liaison with the different levels of the communist Administration. In this case, he/she communicates the guidelines regarding the virus.

Last year, J.Juan had a turnover of 72 million euros, six million more than in 2018. Production in China is growing at high speed, with 19 million in income in 2019, compared to eight million in 2015. The company employs 140 people, of whom 80% of indirect employees, but only 15% of direct employees are working. “We were expecting to turnover more than 20 million in 2020, but now we don’t know how much the turnover will be; our goal is to stay alive”, he said, half-jokingly. Half of the China production is sold in the local market and the rest is for South-east Asia, Europe and America.

 

The need not to depend on one country

J.Juan’s CEO in China believes that coronavirus crisis will subside “if the international cases recover”.

“But if not, then the concern could be greater”. Jaume Rosinés thinks that he Chinese Government is doing everything possible to “minimize the damage” to the country just when it has launched a campaign to remove the stigma cheap, low quality products”. “This crisis has opened many companies’ eyes to their dependence on a single country”, referring to the world’s factory. In their case, J.Juan has not yet moved their production – something that would imply pushinig the Catalonian facilities to export to Europ and North America -, but that is a scenario for which the family-run business has plans.

 

J.Juan appoints Alessio Caputo as new Business Development Director

J.Juan appoints Alessio Caputo as new Business Development Director

As a further step in supporting the growth and consolidation of the Company, J. Juan has incorporated Alessio Caputo in the role of Business Development Director; his contribution will be to support the market growth strategy of J. Juan in Hydraulic hoses, Braking Systems and Electronics.

Alessio has a deep knowledge of the global 2W and powersport market maturated as Business Development Director first and CEO later in Triom (later VLS) in Europe, USA, India, Vietnam and Japan. Under his leadership, Triom Vietnam Co. Ltd was established in Hanoi, Vietnam, to supply Asian customers with two-wheeled vehicle system solutions and finishes for limited edition vehicles. He led the integration of the company’s new business in India by offering technical, logistic, and distribution support and was charged with consolidating the international growth of the company.

He is joining a team of motivated and skilled professionals with massive presence in global 2W and powersports. His contribution as an executive with a lot of important background in these areas will surely result in an increase of market share and win customer loyalty.

GREAT WORLD SEASON OF J.JUAN BRAKE SYSTEMS

GREAT WORLD SEASON OF J.JUAN BRAKE SYSTEMS

J.Juan brake systems are acquiring great prestige worldwide. You may think that it is anexaggeration of the marketing or commercial team, but our systems have won in the competitions where they have been present. Be it speed, off road, two or four wheels. Sounds like an over exaggeration but it’s a reality, and a direct result f the hard work of everyone in the J.Juan Group.

 

Speedies to the Podium

 

If we look in the field of speed, J.Juan has been proclaimed champion in Italy, France, Portugal and Spain in Moto3, monodisk, and Premoto3. He has also won in the European (FIM-CEV) motorcycle 3 and in the Talent Cup, and we have done so in multiple ways by equipping different brands such as Honda, BeOn, RMU, KTM or MIR.

Many will tell us that in Moto3 of the World Cup we have not been successful. This is false! In the World Cup we cannot equip our double disc front system because our engineering team considers that it is not in the proper development phase to win races, but the riders who have used our Thumbrake have climbed, continuously, to the top of the competition. This is the case with Aaron Canet, and, it seems that next season will bring very positive news about our thumb brake in all categories, even in MotoGP.

Also, in Moto2 of the World Cup we have had a breakthrough. This season has been equipped by Stop and Go, a team that in previous seasons struggled to score. In this season, they hav achieved 2 pole position and they have climbed twice to the podium! We already foresee them competing for first place with Alex Márquez next year.

 

Another World Championship to Rea

As for Superbikes … More incredible news! Jonathan Rea has broken a historical record by winning the World Cup for an amazing fifth time! Few know that Kawasaki had never won in this category until the Roda brothers (Guim and Biel) took control and equipped, in passing, J.Juan hydraulic tube systems. In seven seasons, they have won 6 world titles.

Ana Carrasco, on the other hand, has not been able to conquer the World Cup due to two inopportune falls that have relegated her to third place, but the future is exciting for her! We are convinced that this is just the beginning of a promising career for this future Murcia lawyer of just 22 years.

In Trial, what am I going to tell you…!

On Off Road, we have revived a classic: Braktec sweeps the trial. More surprising news would be that one day some motorcycle without our product would reach the podium of GPTrial, or the Junior World Cup, or the World Cup. With this it is seven years (2012-2019) that Braktec is owner and sits atop the throne. Thanks also must go to the pilots Bou, Raga and Emma Bristow.

 

The Enduro Came, Saw and Conquered

The novelty, yes, has been the Motocross. The new system designed by Braktec was released in 2019 undergoing training only for the Spanish Championship. The idea was to test the product on this stage. The test has become the achievement of the competition with Jezyk. In addition, the pilots have competed in only some tests of the European competitions that has already earned them a fourth-place finish.

As if that were not enough, the Spanish team of the Six Days of Enduro tested the brakes that had just been produced, and the result was that the captain of the national team, Ivan Cervantes, a “nobody” who has only won 5 World Cups, gave them a 9.5 out of 10 on average.

 

Absolute Kings of Side by Side

If we look in the field of four wheels, “for now” we only compete in the Side x Side category. And I say “just” because some car teams may be on the horizon….

In SxS we have swept. It is almost identical to that of Braktec in Trial. All competitions where a vehicle carried brakes produced in Sant Cugat have won with J.Juan systems. There is more. Famous pilots like Toby Price, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Nani Roma or Heinz Kimigarden have rated the performance of our systems through the clouds.

Let’s savor the joys of this 2019 with great satisfaction. These successes are not easy for us (you know well). Similar to the complications of production, competing is very difficult. Not only are we competing, but we are winning! Let us enjoy the successes and continue to strive for improvement to repeat them in the coming years.

THE KTM RC4R PRESENTED AT EICMA WILL CARRY J.JUAN BRAKES ON ALL CONTINENTS

THE KTM RC4R PRESENTED AT EICMA WILL CARRY J.JUAN BRAKES ON ALL CONTINENTS

 

KTM introduced the new RC4R that will employ the entire J.Juan brake system. The Orange brand presented its machine during the Milan International Fair, EICMA, at the beginning of last November.

The RC4R is a 250 that will be used in the Red Bull Rockies Cup, a test parallel to the MotoGP in Europe. Also, in the Northern Talent Cup (a promotional formula for Northern and Central European riders, as well as multiple national and international competitions.

J.Juan provides the entire brake system, including the 34/30 diameter double piston front caliper; 16X18 mm radial front pump with CNC adjustable cam; Axial rear caliper in CNC double piston titanium 25 millimeter diameter and 12.7mm foot pump, vertical with integrated tank.