Harley-Davidson profits fall

2nd February 2016

Foreign imports | 264,627 bikes | 2015 | £4.19bn

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Harley-Davidson has had a pretty lousy 2015, financially speaking. Between January and December last year, the Milwaukee-based firm sold 264,627 motorcycles, which probably sounds pretty good to most of us (and it's the kind of numbers that Triumph would love to be boasting about). But that figure actually represents a 1.3% drop which in turn brought company bike sales revenue down by 5.9% to £3.06bn.

The firm has other incomes streams aside from motorcycle sales which includes accessories, franchising, and financial services. Nevertheless, the company's annual revenue fell 3.7% taking it down to £4.19bn. Within this, operating profit fell by 9.8% to £807.9m. Net profit declined by 10.9% to £525.9m.

In the USA, sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles fell 1.7% to 168,240 units. That represents a USA market share fall from 54.5% to 51.2%.

In Europe, Harley-Davidson sales fell by 4.1% to 36,894 units. That took the firm's EU market share down from 12% to 10.5%.

In Canada sales fell by 2% to 9,669 units. In Latin America sales declined by 4.1% to 11,173 units. But in the general Asia Pacific region sales rose by 7.3% to 32,258 units. Japan, however, bucked the trend where sales fell by 10% to 9,700 units.

It's dismal news for a firm that's facing an increasing number of foreign motorcycle imports that are steadily nibbling away at its core market with a new generation of exceptionally competitive bikes, both in terms of quality, pricing and street appeal.

To combat the decline, Harley-Davidson is planning to increase worldwide shipments to somewhere between 269,000 and 274,000 bikes and looking to increase product development whilst cutting costs.

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