Harley all time sales peaked around 2007 (2008 model year) or so. Some of us can remember the sky high gasoline prices and the economy going south big-time. Lots of folks lost their jobs, houses and beloved motorcycles.


After nearly filling for bankruptcy and changing out to new management in 2009, the MOCO dodged the bullet by cost cutting, firings, plant closings and modernization. Yes, they have several plants oversees now in which they assemble new Harleys.


They now seem to have turned the corner and are hitting on all cylinders again. Unlike the auto manufacturers, overall sales numbers have not shown an increase yet, according to their figures. Profits are up but sales are still pretty soft.


I ran across these numbers today which shows the total number of Harley Sales stores for the USA. I thought it interesting.

2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006
696 695 706 729 758 787 788 679

 

Being a shareholder for 25 years- I have seen yearly model production numbers of 25000, move to well over 200000 the past 10+ years....I have also seen my investments multiply many many times in value....better than my IRA that's fer sure.
I somehow missed the bankruptcy!

as for "peak production" look at 2003- 420,000 models ( they cheated a 15 month model year though).

as this is a luxury item for some who can't plan their money well, when Wall Street be, we covered the losses.
and big ticket sales slowed.

The concept of offshore production for foreign markets is not new.
Licensing didn;t work out so well in the Japan of the 30's.

Offshore production helps to avoid tariffs, while a "Domestic Product" can help to build a market. previous to the India Works, an assembly plant was planned for Brazil- the poor economic climate in South America the past 14 years has shelved that- Brazil is doing better but it's neighbors are not

The concept of foreign made components assembled onto US production bikes goes back 100 years- and really came on during the AMF years when Showa ( Honda) and Hitachi components were chosen.

H-D as a Corporation has done some dunderheaded moves sacrificing long term for quarterly numbers.

But counting the number of shops does not equal the health of the company.

some would say that too many shops does less.

The HD reports can be an interesting read.



Mike

 

Just because one dealership in a geographic area is doing well, doesn't mean two will do better. Sometimes, adding another dealership just splits the customers between the two resulting in each dealership doing half the business that the original one did when it was the only one.

 

Not sure I'd put much stock into theirs sales volume in the 2007 era- way too much purchasing of "stuff" with home equity that was grossly overstated. People were tapping into their home equity to buy Hummers, Boats, toys of all kinds, including I'm sure, Harley MC's. as we all know, when the bottom fell out it fell out hard.



For the 3rd or 4th (at least) time since they started production in 1903, they've dodged many financial bullets in the past 110+ years. And since they are selling a lot of bikes overseas, it makes sense they'd have assembly plants in the area. As far as I know, they are not assembling overseas for domestic sales. I think even the Streets that are sold here are assembled here.

From their latest earnings release:
Worldwide retail sales of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles grew 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter and 2.7 percent for the full year compared to the year-ago periods, driven by strong international sales – up 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter and 5.4 percent for the full year.

Dealers worldwide sold 47,149 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 2.8 percent compared to 45,875 motorcycles in the year-ago quarter. In the U.S., dealers sold 26,957 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the quarter, down 1.6 percent compared to sales of 27,387 motorcycles in the year-ago period. In international markets, dealers sold 20,192 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles during the quarter, up 9.2 percent compared to sales of 18,488 motorcycles in the year-ago period, with unit sales up 14.2 percent in the Asia Pacific region, 8.7 percent in the EMEA region and 4.7 percent in the Latin America region, and down 5.7 percent in Canada .

For the full year 2014, dealers sold 267,999 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles worldwide, up 2.7 percent compared to 260,839 motorcycles in 2013. Retail unit sales were up 1.3 percent in the U.S., 11.8 percent in the Asia Pacific region, 6.4 percent in the EMEA region, 2.1 percent in the Latin America region and down 10.8 percent in Canada compared to full-year 2013

Sounds like sales are increasing to me. Except in Canada. So you Kanucks need to get off your ***** and buy some new bikes, eh?

Dealers come and go all the time, they are independent businesses, some will make it, others won't- might have as much to do with the owners as anyting else.

 

The reason that I carefully chose the wording "nearly" is because were it not for the following restructuring the Harley Davidson Motor Company would have surely been forced to file for bankruptcy.


On April 29, 2010, Harley-Davidson stated that they must cut $54 million in manufacturing costs from its production facilities in Wisconsin, and that they would explore alternative U.S. sites to accomplish this. The announcement came in the wake of a massive company-wide restructuring, which began in early 2009 and involved the closing of two factories, one distribution center, and the planned elimination of nearly 25% of its total workforce (around 3,500 employees). The company announced on September 14, 2010 that it would remain in Wisconsin.


The Motor Company also took the Federal Reserve up on its emergency lending program on 33 separate occasions in 2008 and 2009 to the tune of $2.3 billion. These loans called for a 15% rate of interest to be paid, which it was.


Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett's company) and Davis Selected Advisers LP, Harley's biggest shareholder, each bought $300 million in senior unsecured bridge loans in 2009. This money was used to finance sales of it's motorcycles to customers. The loan came with a hefty 15 percent interest rate. Still, it was the only company from which Harley could borrow money without giving up its equity.


Once again were it not for these accumulated draconian measures, The MOCO would have had to file for bankruptcy. I used the word "nearly" because they did not have to file for bankruptcy. They damn sure skirted it though.

 

So did I! They certainly hit difficult times, which brought about the closure of Buell and selling off MV Agusta. I suspect those two were mostly due to them being made from mostly imported stuff and exchange rates went through the well known collapse of World finances. I reckon H-D simply pulled in their belt a couple of notches.

 

Not certain i agree with you. The reason for the borrowing was NOT 100% related to the manfacture of motorcycles but more towards HD financial services the division that finances bike sales. Yes they needed to improve manfacturing costs but in reality credit dried up from the usual sources and they were forced to take Multiple measures across the board to address a lack of liquidity to finance bike sales forced on them by the world wide financial crisis. Just like AIG, GM and ever other big company that took bail out funds.
Progress is painful, and when you have to go thru pain good management will impact all areas not just one, thus the reason they addressed costs in the bike manfacturing division.

 

I don't think counting dealerships is going to tell you much though....There seems to be a Harley dealer on every corner these days.
As far as the "almost having to file bankruptcy" that's just business as usual, lot's of companies these days are having to bust their asses to stay afloat in what can only be termed a "hostile and volatile business environment".

 

They've skirted bankruptcy several times in the past 100+ years. Yet they seem to emerge relatively intact each time. Seems like SOP for them at times.

Sounds like they do what they need to do to keep on keeping on.

 

Because they built too many when they were booming...I have 3 near me, none more than 30 minutes away...I expect to see one of those close in the near future.