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Harley-Davidson and Triumph are motorcycle companies that survive only on motorcycles, parts and accessories. Every other major manufacturer has a much larger parent company to carry them through the tough times. Triumph is even more remarkable since it is privately owned.
I do agree about competition being good, but fair competition not foreign dumping in an effort to drive a domestic manufacturer out of business. The reason Harley brought out the 6-speed transmission is because of Victory...but Harley would never admit that.
Harley Davidson is a clothing and branding company. AMF was genius in that regard. I read 2 years ago that they make more money on branding than they do on motorcycles. Polaris had to start a company from scratch. I would wager to say that they now sell as many or more motorcycles than Triumph. They didn't have 100 years of several broke companies legacies to build on. Now they do, with a brand new line of bikes with a brand new motor.
It is going to be interesting for sure. The consumers win all the time when competition hits. While in Sturgis lots of bar and shield folks standing on line to ride the polaris bikes. Spirit Lake Iowa is in America. Americans build Victory and Indian just like Harley.
Actually it's 56.5% of the U.S. market now with only 5% of total revenue from selling Harley gear.
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For the first six months of 2014 Polaris combined motorcycle sales totaled $181,995 not bad. Second Quarter Performance Summary (in thousands except per share data)
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Harley-Davidson motorcycle sales totaled (in thousands) $2,785,953 Parts $469,707 General merchandise $140,500
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Just the facts.
Last edited by moe; 08/13/2014 8:00 AM.
