MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Fox Factory is displaying a handful of Marzocchi products under its tent at the Sea Otter this week, but the company is looking toward the 2018 model year to make its first big splash with Marzocchi, which it bought last year. For now Fox is selling some model year 2016 forks and shocks that the formerly Italian company developed and produced prior to the purchase. Fox also has been busy setting up Marzocchi service internationally. Currently Fox is offering service and parts through its regular Fox distribution channels for Marzocchi products dating back to 2010.
The Marzocchi products that Fox is displaying this week at the Sea Otter Classic were all manufactured prior to the purchase, said Fox's global communications manager Mark Jordan.
Tenneco, Marzocchi's previous owner, had shut down manufacturing for several months prior to the sale, which was announced last October. However, the company had kept a handful employees on the payroll in several countries, even while the company was mostly dormant, and Fox has hired five or six of those employees, said Andrea Pierantoni, a Marzocchi employee for many years who is now the director of Marzocchi brand management for Fox.
Pierantoni said that Fox now employs several Marzocchi employees, including some engineers, who have been with the brand for decades.
"(Tenneco) had to keep some of us still working, otherwise there would have been no company to sell to Fox, and we woulnd't be standing here today," Pieratoni told BRAIN at Sea Otter on Thursday.
The company also has hired Nazareno "Naz" Evangelista, to work on customer service issues, including training. Evangelista, based in North Vancouver, British Columbia, has worked for Marzocchi since 2005.
Pierantoni said Marzocchi will be fully integrated with Fox, including sharing sales and marketing staffs. "We are one company with two brands," he said.
However he said the company is still debating exactly how the brands will mesh. Marzocchi is likely to fill in some product line holes that exist in the Fox line. He said he doesn't expect Marzocchi to become a discount line, as some feared.
"You won't see Marzocchi on bikes selling for under $1,000," he said.
He said the Marzocchi 2017 line will be similar to the 2016 offerings. "The 2018 line is where we will really get going again, in the OE and aftermarket," he said.
Fox bought Marzocchi's mountain bike business from Tenneco, a U.S.-based conglomerate. Fox had bought Easton Cycling and Race Face in December 2014. At Sea Otter, Marzocchi products are being shown side by side with Fox forks, while Easton and Race Face displays are adjacent to each other and directly across the walkway from Fox.
