It is confirmed from various news sources that Harley-Davidson bikes aren’t selling nearly as well as they have historically. The downturn began last year.
In 2008 the company announced that it would have to temporarily close plants, reduce daily production and cut around 730 jobs. This is when it first became clear to the public that the economic downturn in the United States had severely affected bike sales.
As anticipated, the situation got worse in the in second quarter of 2008. Harley's net fell 23% amid a steep drop in domestic sales. Shipments of motorcycles fell 15.6% to 80,326. The reduced volumes hurt the company's operating margin, which fell to 20.1% from 23.9% a year earlier.
In April, Harley-Davidson announced fewer shipments still (between 23,000 and 27,000 less), and that 700 more jobs would be cut.
The decline became even greater in 2009. U.S. retail sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles were down 9.4 percent compared with the same period in 2008. U.S. sales represented nearly 73 percent of total worldwide retail sales during the two-month period. International retail sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles declined 21.5 percent for the period.
What will Harley-Davidson do to save costs? Will it alter plans for the 2010 model year? Will they go for damage control, or will they continue with plans already in place?
Looks like the boom is definitely over.
