Harley-Davidson announces plans for Canadian distributor

Harley-Davidson has confirmed they’re moving up the schedule for the end of their deal with Deeley, with a change over to direct distribution late this summer.

Back in March, we told you about the first rumblings of change in Harley-Davidson’s Canadian distribution system. Back then, the official word was that Deeley Harley-Davidson’s long-running distribution deal with the MoCo mother company would end in 2017, at the end of their current contract. However, the announcement hinted that the changeover to a direct distribution model could come even earlier than that.

Now we know that Harley-Davidson’s direct distribution deal will come in this summer, probably in August. A press release issued last week says Harley-Davidson plans to end the deal with Deeley around August 4. At that point, they’ll have a new company-owned distributor based in Concord, Ontario, that will deal with the things that head offices deal with: marketing, human resources, retail development, sales operations, finance, IT, etc.

The new subsidiary office will be under the control of Managing Director, who  most recently served as Managing Director of Harley-Davidson India.

We’ve reached out to Harley-Davidson for some more information on the transition. We’ll update you as we learn more specifics.