Takes Tax Cuts And Then Shutters Kansas Plant Laying Off Hundreds
The Harley Davidson Motor Company (MOCO) has been going down hill since the retirement of Willie G. Davidson in 2012.
I have seen it first hand having been in the industry since 2001. When I got my first job at a Harley dealer it really was like you would imagine it to be. The staff got along great. Everyone was happy to be there. The owners hung out and bbq'd on the weekends. We had 3 weeks a year paid vacation. 2 weeks standard and the week between Christmas and New Years (when the shop closed down) was paid as a bonus.
Around the year 2008 it started sliding. The industry as a whole got really corporate. They started cost cutting on a brand name and local level. The franchisees had to meet a new standard or corporate regulations. Dealers that had been open 50-60 years suddenly could not compete with groups of car dealers on a financial scale.
Then Willie G. retired. Almost overnight the bean counters took over. They cut corporate parts accounts across the nation. Mine included.
Biting The Hand That Feeds You
Then they stopped selling to independent shops altogether. To this day I cannot walk into a dealer with my shop shirt on and buy parts. I'm not talking about at a discount. They WILL NOT SELL to me period. As a normal customer. This is standard practice from Milwaukee itself. They will fine any dealer selling parts to independent shops.
For a brand name that traded on their "Independent Spirit" and cashed in on the custom motorcycle scene for decades to betray those who helped build the brand was a swift kick in the nuts.
They have now alienated their core demographic. The Blue Collar workers that supported the brand in the 70's thru the early 2000's had effectively been priced out in the MOCOs corporate greed.
Now they don't know what to do.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of used bikes in the market place. At affordable prices. While MSRP has been constant if not gone up. The Millennials are not interested in riding 100 year old technology. The MOCO's solution is to unveil a production ELECTRIC Harley in 2019. They could not be more tone deaf to what their fading customer base wants. For a company who made billions off of nostalgia.......this is the wrong move.
They already make an entry level bike in India that is a flop domestically. Nobody wants a Harley made overseas.
Now they are shutting down a plant in Kansas City. The OFFICIAL STORY is they are consolidating the Kansas and York, PA plants. And on paper that is correct. But they are also building a plant in Thailand. Why? For more cheap bikes?
They say its to support their international models. But it is a cost cutting ploy.
The sad part is it won't work.
They (MOCO) sold their soul a long time ago to pump out a few more dollars from the middle class that was the back bone of their customer base and now they are reaping what they have sown.
Barring some DRASTIC change from their current culture, I am predicting the demise of the MOCO by 2030. Or they will be absorbed by Google or Amazon for the licensing rights.
Here is the link to USA Today piece on tax cuts and plant closing.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/05/27/harley-davidson-layoffs/647199002/
Thanks for reading my blog.
Carry on, HM
*pic link from google images