Editing IMZ-Ural (section)

==Corporate information==
In November 1992, the [[State ownership|state-owned]] IMZ transformed into a privatized entity owned 40 percent by management and employees through grant, 38 percent by auction with privatization vouchers (mostly management and employees also), with 22 percent retained by the government.

At the beginning of 1998, the business was bought by Russian-Georgian statesmen and businessman [[Kakha Bendukidze]]. By that time, IMZ had almost completely lost the domestic market as Russians started buying used Western cars instead of sidecar motorcycles. In 1998 IMZ produced fewer than 2,000 units but the factory still employed nearly 4,000 people. To fix this problem, Bendukidze brought in new management and mandated new ideas. Investments were made to develop a two-wheeled motorcycle, the chopper-styled Ural Wolf. Unfortunately, the Wolf's price was too high and its quality was too low and the company couldn't sell enough bikes to stay afloat.
[[File:Ural Wolf.png|thumb|The ill-fated Ural Wolf]]
In October 2000, the factory had to halt production as it wasn't able to pay its bills and Bendukidze was unwilling to invest more money into the dying company. That December, Bendukidze sold the factory to three individuals—including the company's current CEO and majority shareholder, the Russian-born American businessman Ilya Khait—in a process of management buyout. The new owners immediately began reorganizing the factory by selling off assets, reducing the workforce by two-thirds, and consolidating production in the facility's smaller buildings. The new owners also decided to focus mainly on export markets and to do what the factory did best—produce sidecar-equipped motorcycles. Motorcycle production restarted in the spring of 2001.
[[File:IMZ-Ural CEO Ilya Khait.png|thumb|IMZ-Ural's CEO Ilya Khait.]]
The next year, in 2002, the new owners decided to consolidate the disparate distribution networks under company control. The American distribution arm, Irbit Motorworks of America, Inc., was incorporated in Redmond, WA. Ural Motorcycles GmbH, the European distribution arm, was formed in [[Austria]] in 2003. Corporate headquarters was moved to the United States in 2006 with the formation of the [[holding company]] IMZ-Ural Group, Inc. in Redmond, WA. Besides the manufacturing entities, IMZ-Ural Group, Inc. currently owns distribution companies in the US, Australia, Japan, Spain, and the [[Czech Republic]].

During the opening rounds of [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine]], IMZ-Ural released a statement unequivocally condemning the invasion and calling for a peaceful resolution. In March of that year, Ural production ground to a halt due to inability to import components and export bikes out of Russia caused by international sanctions laid on the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marker |first=Jason |date=April 25, 2022 |title=An Interview With Ural CEO Ilya Khait |url=https://www.rideapart.com/features/581527/ural-ceo-russia-ukraine-interview/}}</ref> 
[[File:Ural Kazakhstan Assembly.png|thumb|New Gear Ups at the IMZ-Kazakhstan facility.]]
In light of these issues, the company decided to open a new assembly facility in Petropavl, Kazakhstan. Petropavl, a city roughly 373 miles (600 kilometers) south-east from Irbit, was chosen because it had an established industrial infrastructure and a sizeable Russian-speaking populace.

Production at the new factory, IMZ-Kazakhstan, began in August 2022, and shipment of new motorcycles started soon thereafter.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marker |first=Jason |date=July 26, 2022 |title=Ural Restarts Production At New Facility In Kazakhstan |url=https://www.rideapart.com/news/599148/ural-kazakhstan-production-facility-opens/}}</ref> Since then, all new Ural Gear Ups have been built in Kazakhstan using parts supplied from all over the world.