Lind’s new Ducati North London show home

The press is often accused of prioritising doom and gloom – so it was a pleasure to be covering a good news story when Ducati opened its latest top-end showroom in Watford, North London, last month, writes Alan Dowds.

Ducati North London is the first retail outlet for the Bologna brand owned by the Lind Group, and it replaces Lind’s Harley-Davidson branch, which closed at the end of 2024. The rebranded store was officially opened by Ducati BSB star Leon Haslam, assisted by TV’s Grace Webb and Lind chairman Russ Dacre. The gala event attracted big crowds, thanks to some spring sunshine, pizza, gelato, coffee, and cannoli!

A very happy Fabrizio Cazzoli, Ducati UK MD, was there, and was delighted with the new opening. “It’s a good news story for us. North London has been an open point for quite a while, and it is a very important part of the country that needs a relevant presence. That’s exactly what is happening here: the showroom is beautiful and includes the largest Scrambler display area in the country.

“It comes with a state-of-the-art service department, which is perfectly designed, and puts emphasis on accessories, parts and apparel, which are extremely important for us.”

Cazzoli spoke of the ‘cultural impact’ of a Ducati store like this. “Ducati showrooms are not just a box with some people who sell motorcycles. More and more for us, the showroom is a meeting point, the hub, the place where all the Ducatisti can see the bikes, but also everything that supports them – events, track days, trips to Italy, visiting the factory – the full package customers are looking for.

“The other key element is we are partnering with one of the best names in the business. Lind is an established business focused on high-end premium automotive distribution.”

While Lind chairman Russ Dacre, cut the ribbon at the opening, Toby Sleeman, head of motorcycles explained the background. “We opened a Harley business here in February 2020, and literally three weeks later, we had to close down because of Covid, which wasn’t ideal. We’re still proud of it, and we still represent Harley-Davidson: we have two of the biggest Harley showrooms in the UK. Unfortunately, for Harley, this area wasn’t giving us what we needed. We’d been talking to Ducati for probably six years about the opportunity with the open point in North London and Herts, and we moved quite quickly.”

Having a premium bike dealership in place already was an advantage, and Lind was able to keep on pretty much all of the staff from the Harley business – many of whom are retraining with Ducati in Silverstone and Italy.

“It was a bike shop already,” said Sleeman, “so it was a fairly straightforward identity change. But nothing’s easy, and it took longer than anticipated. We’ve been opening bike businesses for many years, so we know what we’re doing.”

The challenge now for Sleeman and Lind is to grow a new local customer base, both for sales and servicing. “Ducati is very helpful in terms of marketing, and we’ve got a big reach within the community in the south of England. Obviously, we’ve been in contact with lots of local Ducati owners’ groups, and many of them are here today, which is great.”

Sleeman and Cazzoli agree that it’s a good time to be starting with Ducati because of this year’s strong new product range. “I think we’ve come into the market with Ducati at the right time in terms of the product cycle,” said Sleeman. “It’s going to be fantastic for us, and hopefully we’ll hit the ground running.”

“The timing is perfect,” said Cazzoli. “We’ve launched our new V2 engine configuration, and it’s fantastic. Of course, I have to say that! But it really is, and every comparative press road test says so. The V2 comes together with our lineup of V4 engines, and the Multistrada V4 keeps winning every comparative test, both in and outside the UK.”