The history of Leonart Motors began long before motorcycles. In 1986, the Llorens family launched a company dedicated to industrial textile machinery. For years, that was the family business, until the turn of the century also brought a change of scenery. "From 2000 onwards, the textile world in Catalonia completely plummeted," recalls Jordi Llorens.
Then, the brothers, Jordi and Marc, shared a hobby: motorcycles. In 2004, a change in regulations made them think that perhaps there was a business opportunity: the car license now allowed driving motorcycles up to 125cc, and the market was beginning to open up to new users: "We saw that there was the possibility of doing in 125cc what wasn't available in the market: custom-style motorcycles," explains Jordi.
Without prior experience in the sector, the brothers decided to bet everything and create their own brand. The name also had a family history behind it: Leonart is their mother's surname. The first model to arrive was the Spyder. "It was very popular, and we saw that there was a market niche that we could target as the family business we are," he explains. That first model has become, twenty years later, a company that sells about 700 motorcycles annually and has a presence in a dozen countries.
Leonart maintains an essential part of the process in Barcelona: from Mataró, motorcycles are designed, and relationships with suppliers, logistics, dealerships, and technical service are managed. Manufacturing is done with Asian suppliers, mainly in China. With seven people on the team, the brand has built an international distribution network. France and Spain are the main markets, managed directly from Barcelona, while in other countries they work with importers.
After-sales, in fact, is one of the lessons Leonart learned from its first industrial life. "In the end, motorcycles are also machines. We were already used to providing service in this regard," Llorens emphasizes. Thus, spare parts, technical service, and customer support have been, from the beginning, an important part of the company's proposal.
A motorcycle that reaches Japan
Internationalization has been arriving progressively, also through fairs and contact with distributors. Portugal, Belgium, and Germany are some of the markets where Leonart has been entering, but one of the most significant leaps has been Japan. The contact arose at a fair in Italy, where a Japanese company showed interest in the brand. “We went there, and we also did a fair in Tokyo,” Llorens recalls.
Now the goal is to continue expanding the map. The United Kingdom, with a strong motorcycle culture, is one of the next markets they want to tackle. In the long term, the focus is on the United States and South America, as Llorens details.
The return of Bultaco
Leonart wants to get there with models they design to have a long life and be recognizable. The Catalan firm currently sells six models —four combustion and one electric—, and all have been designed with one intention: “We work to make motorcycles that can be identified with the brand and have identity.” Now, it has done so with a new rally model designed with the iconic Bultaco, the Rally GT 300, which represents the return of the mythical Catalan brand.
“We give a lot of life to the models. We make designs that last a long time, without super-contemporary aesthetics that quickly lose their meaning,” says Llorens. For example, one of the company's best-selling models, the Daytona, has practically not changed since it was launched in 2009.
With this philosophy, the family company invoices around 1.5 million euros, and now faces a new stage to continue growing and reaching new markets. It does so 20 years after being born from the reconversion of the family business, by the hand of the same family that, two decades later, continues to look for new roads to ride on.