Harley Davidson in todays News!

[Yama Mama]

Hey did anybody see this in todays news about

Harley Davidson?

 

http://www.topix.com/com/hdi/2007/11/motorcycle-maker-shuts-down-some-production-for-one-week

 

I hear they will be having a big sale soon.

 

Peggy:big-grin-emoticon:

[Redneck]

I saw it on the evening news I'm really kinda surprised it hasn't happened sooner They have the market saturated. I feel bad for the employees its not a good time of year to loose a paycheck.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Hey the Motor Company is doing something proactive...they need to reduce production, so they chose a proactive shutdown. Thats better than a reactive lay-off.

 

Keep in mind that HD now produces over TWICE the amount of bikes per year than they did 10 years ago. And yes, they may have ramped up a bit too much, but the result of that was no more 2 year waiting lines ( and $4000 over retail) to get a new bike. I went through that myself...paying...then waiting...

 

If HD sees a need to cut back production, you can bet the other manufacturers have taken notice, and they are affected by the same overall market forces and recessions as everyone else. We may not hear about it over here, but if the most popular motorcycles in the world are slowing in sales, what will that do to the other brands?

 

 

 

 

[Lone Eagle]

Did you see this part of the article:

"Harley-Davidson expects full-year shipments to be between 328,000 and 332,000 units, down from 349,196 units last year."

THAT'S A LOT OF DANGED BIKES - GEESH - I had no idea they shipped that many new bikes - I wonder if that is a world wide number?

 

In my industry - the contract furniture industry - it has been a common practice for many of the big manufacturer's to close completely for a week during December - generally to tune up the machinery - save costs, etc. And I would agree with tx2sturgis, that there seems to be no more waiting for their bikes.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Did you see this part of the article:

"Harley-Davidson expects full-year shipments to be between 328,000 and 332,000 units, down from 349,196 units last year."

THAT'S A LOT OF DANGED BIKES - GEESH - I had no idea they shipped that many new bikes - I wonder if that is a world wide number?

 

 

That is worldwide production...about one third goes to the worldwide (non- US) market...maybe less now!

 

 

[1BigDog]

Those huge behemoths of multi-level buildings that HD calls superplexes are filled to capacity with new and used HD's. I kinda wondered when the market would catch up to them. People arent really spending money so freely and the stock market is in a free fall.

[Condor]

They mention the sluggish economy. They'd better hold on to their shorts, it's gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. Harley is sitting in a very precarious position. Full inventory pipelines, reluctance of dealers to order, and the buying public not having the confidence to purchase anything that isn't an absolute neccesity. Competition is gonna get tough.......

[ediddy]

This isn't the only problem harley is experiencing. Their financing arm of the company is being hit with the subprime lending problem. Last year to keep sales up they lowered the minimum beacon score to get financed. They are now reposessing a lot of those bikes and the used marked price is down because of the number of used harleys on the market. Last may their stock price went from around 70.00 per share to 59.00 per share. The stock brokers were saying 59.00 per share was a good buy and that it would go back up. It may but it looks like it may be a while.

[Tour Deluxe]

They had a show on TV last night on PA18 about the Harley factory Tour in York, PA. That is all the large bike production. They said 19-20% of product goes overseas. I think this slow down is not a good thing and is a sign of a bad economy, car production & housing are also very slow.

[WIKD]

Anyone else look a little further down the other articles that said Harley davidson stock was up because of the possibility of Honda Motor Corp buying it?

[CrazyHorse]

I saw it on the evening news I'm really kinda surprised it hasn't happened sooner They have the market saturated. I feel bad for the employees its not a good time of year to loose a paycheck.

 

 

Yep too many classic looking motorcycles out there had to come to end eventually like the chopper fading away. I agree totally.

[ken]

I wonder if this will push back the build date of my HD Ultra. It did have a build date of tomorrow.

[CrazyHorse]

I wonder if this will push back the build date of my HD Ultra. It did have a build date of tomorrow.

 

 

Thats not good should be a nice bike when its done. I like those 08 Harleys.