Harley-Davidson Spirals Down, Announces US Layoffs, Builds Factory in Thailand

Jon Economy

Trying to manage a structural decline in a terrible industry.
Shares of Harley-Davidson (HOG) dropped 10% in the morning after the company reported second-quarter earnings and were down nearly 6% at the end of the day. Almost everything was bad.
Retail sales by its dealers in the US fell 9.3% in Q2, compared to a year ago, to 49,668 motorcycles. They were ‘down more than we anticipated,’ the company said. And with ‘soft sales across most markets,’ sales by its dealers globally fell 6.7%.
‘Industry new motorcycle sales deterioration continued,’ the company said in its presentation, lamenting ‘weak industry sales on soft used bike prices.’
In addition to the industry woes, its market share in Q2 in the US dropped 1 percentage point to 48.5%. Shipments in the quarter fell 7.2% to 81,807 and are down 10.8% year to date.

This post was published at Wolf Street by Wolf Richter ‘ Jul 18, 2017.