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During the production of the last Italian Maxis, in 1997, Piaggio decided to sell off the Maxi engine as a licensed product to Motor Manet in Slovakia. Manet bought the entire engine production line from Piaggio and moved it to the Považská Bystrica factory in Slovakia, where the Babetta moped had previously been produced.
Manet developed their own low-priced moped called the Manet Korado, and fitted it with  the Maxi Motor. The first engines Manet produced were of poor quality, but they learned quickly and started to improve on their quality.
As you see from the items below, the Korado was imported into the UK during the late 1990s by the sole Jawa importer at the time in King’s Lynn. In Holland Piaggio tried to sell the Manet Korado under the name Puch Z-One, but it was overpriced and was not sold under the name of Puch for long. After 2000 it continued to be sold under the Manet Korado name, separated from Piaggio. Manet got the rights for the Maxi Motor, and in 2000 they got the Super Maxi cylinder back into production. More power, more models and better quality was being produced and so the Maxi Motor survived for a while with Manet.
By 2008 the Považská Bystrica factory had ceased moped production completely and the company transformed itself into VVED, producing in the old Manet factory some agricultural light equipment - as in the advert here. |
