Bubble bursts at Harley www.harley-davidson.com
Harley-Davidson says it will reduce shipments of new motorcycles by 27,000 in 2008, following a first quarter drop in profit of 2.5 per cent.
In the U.S., H-D motorcycle sales fell 12.8 per cent in the quarter, and worldwide sales were down 5.6 per cent.
The company will cut 730 jobs, about half of them in production.
Profit for the quarter was only $187.6 million, compared with $192.3 million in the same quarter of 2007. Still, Harley says its bikes sold better in the U.S. market during the period than the average of all companies’ heavyweight motorcycle sales.
I’ve owned rice rockets before and now own 2 Harleys a 1979 lowrider and 1982 electaglide and both are perfect. If i had bought the Japanese bikes in these same years they would have been bic lighters by now or little Tike kiddie toys. H.D. still rules
Insulting Harley Davidson and their riders is not cool. We’re all motorcyclists who like to ride. Idiots exist on ALL brands of bike. Don’t let a few bad seeds prejudice you on an entire group of people. And by the way, I ride a TL1000R.
Really , where do they think the market is going for the big expensive HD experience anyway. Motorcycling enthusiasts seem to buy other brands not needing the chrome loud big thing going on.
To Honda man (if a man can ride a honda bike) Remember Honda move it’s Goldwing production line back to Japan. Anyway it’s not the best bike.
They are not the best bikes anyway, Metric Rocks
Well, its good up here in Canada, A H.D. that was 24,000 before can now be bought for 16,000, because of the dollar. 😉
Big profits and still the workers suffer. Time to clean the top layer of management. Maybe try some new technology.
Time to buy shares in Piaggio.
And charging buckets of money at the front end so the shareholders don’t get too upset…
If you’re a shareholder, feel free to bring this up at their AGM. If I read this correctly they’re still making buckets of money.
Meanwhile the CEO continues to make $17,000+ a week… 🙁
Sales have peaked, its downhill from here. It’s no longer cool to look bad. Young riders don’t want to look like their dad.