Harley-Davidson’s seeing a small slip in sales, and the cuts have already started.
According to the company’s financial statements, the MoCo saw new motorcycle sales drop one per cent globally, and 2.5 per cent in the US in the third quarter of 2015. That means net income has also dropped, down 6.5 per cent to $140.3 million from $150.1 million.
In last year’s Q3, Harley-Davidson sold 73,217 motorcycles. In 2015, they sold 72,178. They did make more money in sales revenue, but overall, the financial picture wasn’t what investors had hoped for.
The result? Along with falling values on its shares in trading yesterday, Harley-Davidson has also announced they’ll lay off 250 salaried workers in the US. They’re also going to drop even more money on marketing, up 65 per cent. Most interestingly, though, they’re increasing their investment in new product development. Harley-Davidson says they’re going to raise that budget by 35 per cent over current 2015 levels.
What that means is, more money spent developing new motorcycles. It doesn’t mean they’re going to start building sport bikes, or scramblers, or whatever else the Internet comments continually ask them to do.
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