Scomadi

Scomadi is a brand of British designed scooters, produced in Thailand.

Scomadi Ltd
Private limited company
IndustryMotorcycle Manufacture
Founded28 February 2005 (2005-02-28) in Preston, England
Founder
  • Frank Sanderson
  • Paul Melici
HeadquartersRiversway,
Preston
,
England
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
DivisionsScomadi
Websitehttp://www.scomadi.com/

History

Beginnings

Scomadi scooters started in 2005, founded by Frank Sanderson of Scooter Innovation Ltd and Paul Melici of PM Tuning Ltd. Scomadi Headquarters was based in Olympia House, London Road, Preston, Lancashire, England.[1] The two founders, with 60 years of experience between them, put together 10 prototypes named Turismo Leggera (TL).[2] These were sold quickly. They realised there was demand so a further 20 TL300 were produced and painted to customer specification.[2]

Mass Production

In November 2013 Scomadi launched its first production models the TL50 and TL125 at EICMA motorcycle show in Milan. In August 2014 the first TL50 rolled off the production line. Scomadi edited their badge in April 2015 changing the Italian Flag at the top of the badge to the Union Flag. In June 2015 the first batch of TL125's came off the production line, one month later the first Scomadi's were sold outside of the UK in Thailand. In 2016 the first batch of 100 Scomadi TL200 scooters arrived with this batch being known as the First Production (FP) and came numbered with a plaque.[3] By the end of 2016 Scomadi's were available in the UK as well as across much of Europe, parts of East Asia, New Zealand, Australia and Columbia.[2]

Move to Thailand

After Scomadi's divorce from Chinese manufacturing company Hanway Motors they announced a new factory in Thailand in 2017.[2] In March 2017 Scomadi launched their new Model, the Turismo Technica (TT), at the Bangkok International Motor Show. In February 2020 Scomadi opened their new Factory in Thailand located near Pattaya.[4]

Management/Ownership change and New factory

In 2019, after some difficult financial times, Scomadi saw a change in management. The company since the start had been British owned. Following financial challenges, the management structure was changed. This saw the involvement of two firms, Minor International and CT Engineering. Minor International is a leisure brand specialist, and CT Automotive is a component manufacturer. CT Automotive in particular, bought the double effect of bringing components manufacture into the process, as well as being able to utilise their distribution channels. [5]. Founder Frank Sanderson and his wife moved to Thailand to continue involvement, with Frank continuing to work on development and technical innovation.

A new factory was built for Scomadi in Pattaya in Thailand in 2020, in the national "Bike Hub" area, with famous motorcycle marques Triumph, Ducati and Harley Davidson. This is a state of the art assembly factory with an advanced assembly line that can pump out a scooter every 20 minutes. [6].

Controversy with Royal Alloy Scooters

Scomadi scooters were originally manufactured in China by Hanway Motors, to Scomadi UK specifications. However, Scomadi discovered in 2016 that Hanway Motors were essentially rebadging the Scomadi scooters, and selling them as "Royal Alloy" Scooters, and claimed ownership of Scomadi design patents. Royal Alloy scooters entered into Scomadi's market regions, including MOTO GB distributing them in the UK, Scomadi's own country of origin.[7] The legal action effectively resulted in the company having no scooters to sell for 7 months.[8] Scomadi and Hanway/RoyalAlloy settled the matter, with both going their separate ways, and Royal Alloy continuing to sell their Scomadi clone scooters.[9] Scomadi then moved its manufacturing to Thailand,[10][11] though the court battle delay for Scomadi gave the Royal Alloy brand a period where they could make ground in their sales in the same market.[12]

Design

Scomadi TL scooters are a modern design, but resemble 1960s era Innocenti produced Lambretta's, in particular the GP/DL model.[13] Early Scomadi TL scooters used Piaggio The Scomadi TT still kept its Lambretta themed styling but stater to move away from the GP/DL. Multiple prototypes and drawings have been seen including a scooter that resembles a Lambretta Series 1[4] and a TL with a 385cc Moto Morini engine.[14]

Models

Timeline of Models

Distribution

The scooters have distribution throughout UK, Europe, Oceania and Asia, and started exporting into India in 2018.[15]

gollark: Rounding.
gollark: COMMIT to squares, darn it!
gollark: Rounded corners are heresy.
gollark: Ew. No.
gollark: Because `border-radius: 0`.

References
  1. "The Scomadi team". Scomadi. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  2. "The Scomadi Story". Scomadi.com.
  3. "Scomadi FP TL". Scomadi.
  4. "ScooterLab Scomadi 2020". Scooterlab.
  5. "scomadi-factory-open-for-business-news" https://scooterlab.uk/scomadi-factory-open-for-business-news/
  6. "Scomadi Factory Open For Business News" Scooterlab UK https://scooterlab.uk/scomadi-factory-open-for-business-news/
  7. "Despite the rumours Scomadi lives on News" Scooterlabs https://scooterlab.uk/despite-the-rumours-scomadi-lives-on-news/
  8. "New Scomadi Prototypes First Ride Review" 16 August 2017 scooterlab.uk https://scooterlab.uk/new-scomadi-prototypes-first-ride-review/
  9. "Scomadi v Royal Alloy Battle: News" Scooterlab 29 January 2019 https://scooterlab.uk/truce-called-in-scomadi-v-royal-alloy-battle-news-2/
  10. https://paultan.org/2017/02/28/scomadi-scooters-opens-thailand-production-plant/ "Scomadi Scooters-opens-thailand-production-plant"
  11. "Scomadi announce new model" scomadi.com http://www.scomadi.com/latest-news/scomadi-announce-new-model/ "Scomadi announce new model"
  12. "Despite the rumours Scomadi lives on News" Scooterlabs https://scooterlab.uk/despite-the-rumours-scomadi-lives-on-news/
  13. Owen, Paul (2 September 2016). "Scomadi TL200 is a crouching panther, hidden lambretta". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  14. "ScooterLab 400cc Scomadi". ScooterLab.
  15. DuttaUpdated, Dipayan (12 April 2018). "Say hello to India's most expensive scooter: Scomadi TT125 launching in May at Rs 2 lakh!". Financial Express. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
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