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Eicher Motors Ltd announces strategic investment in Stark Future SL

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Parent Company of Royal Enfield, Eicher Motors Ltd, Announces Strategic Investment In Stark Future SL

The Board of Eicher Motors Ltd. (EML) has approved an equity investment of 50 million euros, and plans for collaboration with the electric motorcycle manufacturer.

Milwaukee, WI (Friday, December 29, 2022) – Eicher Motors Ltd., leading Indian multinational automobile company, and parent company of Royal Enfield, global leader in the middleweight motorcycles segment (250cc-750cc), today announced a strategic collaboration in the space of electric motorcycles with Spain-based Stark Future SL. As part of this collaboration, the Board of Directors of Eicher Motors Ltd. has today approved an investment of € 50 million for a close to 10.35% equity stake in Stark Future. With this investment, Eicher Motors Ltd., will have a seat on Stark Future’s Board, and will explore further opportunities to collaborate in the space of electric mobility.

This investment has strategic significance for both Royal Enfield and for Stark Future, as both companies are keenly invested in creating innovative and sustainable solutions in global mobility. Stark Future recently launched its first high-performance electric motocross bike, the Stark VARG, which received an exceptional response from global media, professional riders and dealers.

Speaking about Stark Future and this partnership, Eicher Motors Ltd Managing Director, Siddhartha Lal says, “We love the vision, passion and focus of the amazing team at Stark Future. Leisure motorcycles do not easily lend themselves to EV technology at this stage, due to challenges like the battery range, packaging, weight and cost. This has resulted in stunted growth of this segment till now. Stark Future has been able to understand and harness the potential of EV technology by dramatically outperforming ICE offerings, without compromising on range, weight, packaging and cost. They have created an absolutely astounding motocross motorcycle – the Stark VARG as their entry into the EV world. We believe that Stark Future has the highest potential for real breakout growth in the EV leisure space with this model, and the potential to use this strong base to extend into other contiguous segments and beyond.”

At the helm of affairs at Royal Enfield, B Govindarajan, CEO of the company, feels this is a perfectly symbiotic partnership, and says, “We are very excited to closely collaborate with Stark Future who are as focused as we are on challenging norms, pushing the boundaries and building uniquely differentiated offerings for riders. In addition to the sheer potential of Stark Future, we see immense synergies in this partnership. While they are scaling up and planning their market entry soon, we will support Stark in the industrialization process. While they are thought leaders in EV technology, particularly in lightweight components and innovative solutions, we at Royal Enfield will draw on these capabilities for developing our EV platforms and will also plan to share some EV platforms in the future.”

Also speaking about this partnership, Stark Future Founder and CEO, Anton Wass says, “We aimed to challenge and inspire the motorcycle industry with the creation of the Stark VARG and by bringing our electric technology from the drawing board to reality. To now partner with one of the very first motorcycle brands in history and be part of their journey towards sustainability is a huge inspiration for us at Stark. We have now worked closely with Sid, Govind and team for a few months, and have been deeply impressed by what they have created in the past 25 years, as well as the mindset and focus to continue to build and develop Royal Enfield into the future of sustainable motorcycling. With the Stark VARG we believe we have a launch model that will reset benchmarks, so to know that the bike’s technical basis will spread much further and filter into more machinery and products is another source of pride for us. It has been a short, intense and incredible journey for us so far but our link with Royal Enfield and what lies in store in the coming years are brilliant signs for the future.”

Stark Future is a European electric motorcycle manufacturer with specific focus in the area of performance electric motorcycles. With a vision to inspire the motorcycle industry towards sustainable mobility, Stark Future endeavors to build sustainable products that are superior to traditional technology in performance, emotion and design. Stark Future has deep understanding in the EV space and connected technology, with several patents on its newly developed Stark VARG.

Royal Enfield has made huge strides on its EV journey over the last few years. The company’s R&D programs have included a major focus on sustainable mobility technologies, and there are several ideas in advanced stages of testing. The company has been aggressively building a sharp and insightful understanding of the EV space with an intention to create uniquely differentiated electric motorcycles with strong Royal Enfield DNA, in the middleweight segment. Royal Enfield has been building several thoughts and approaches towards design and development and also towards bringing in the right talent and resources.

About Stark Future: Stark Future is a multinational company, established in 2020 with Swedish roots, located on the fringes of Barcelona. Making the most of Catalunya’s reputation as the European capital of motorcycling, Stark Future was able to construct a dedicated, passionate, and knowledgeable team from the elite of both the motorcycle and power electronics industries, in order to build the first electric motorcycle to be the performance leader within its category, Motocross.

About Royal Enfield: The oldest motorcycle company in continuous production in the world, Royal Enfield made its first motorcycle in 1901. A division of Eicher Motors Limited, Royal Enfield has created the midsize motorcycle segment in India with its unique and distinctive modern classic motorcycles. With its manufacturing base in Chennai, India, Royal Enfield has been able to grow its production rapidly against a surge in demand for its motorcycles.

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National Roadway Safety Strategy Announced

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Thursday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced a new national road safety campaign. The plan, known as the “National Roadway Safety Strategy,” comes in response to increased year over year fatalities on our nation’s roadways. In 2020, an estimated 38,680 people died as a result of a motor vehicle crash. Of those, approximately 9% were motorcyclists’ fatalities.

What is most alarming about the increase in fatalities, is that the total number of miles traveled on our roads decreased during the pandemic. Americans traveled 13.2% less miles in 2020 than we did in 2019, but we saw a 7.2% increase in deaths.

The preliminary numbers for the first 6 months of 2021 are also troublesome. From January through the end of June 2021 an estimated 20,160 people died in crashes. That is the largest number of projected deaths in that time frame since 2006.

To combat this trend the plan outlines five key objectives:

  • Safer People: Encourage safe, responsible behavior by people who use our roads and create conditions that prioritize their ability to reach their destination unharmed.
  • Safer Roads: Design roadway environments to mitigate human mistakes and account for injury tolerances, to encourage safer behaviors, and to facilitate safe travel by the most users.
  • Safer Vehicles: Expand the availability of vehicle systems and features that help to prevent crashes and minimize the impact of crashes on both occupants and non-occupants.
  • Safer Speeds: Promote safer speeds in all roadway environments through a combination of thoughtful, context-appropriate roadway design, targeted education, and outreach campaigns, and enforcement.
  • Post-Crash Care: Enhance the survivability of crashes through expedient access to emergency medical care, while creating a safe working environment for vital first responders and preventing secondary crashes through robust traffic incident management practices.

The recently passed infrastructure bill has components and funding to help achieve some of these goals. For example, $14 billion in new funding was specifically allocated for road safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also announced plans this week to increase the data it collects on crashes. The agency wants to boost the number of crashes investigated and add additional studies that examine crashes involving medium-duty trucks, pedestrians, and workers who are hit on the road.

We at the Motorcycle Riders Foundation are encouraged to see that the U.S. Department of Transportation is taking a complete view of traffic safety, incorporating multiple factors to make our roadways safer. We also remain committed to the theory of crash avoidance, as a crash that doesn’t happen is always safer than one that does.

To get more detail and read the 41 page report click here.

About Motorcycle Riders Foundation: The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) provides leadership at the federal level for states’ motorcyclists’ rights organizations as well as motorcycle clubs and individual riders.
See website at: http://mrf.org/

Mid-South M.I.L.E. 2021

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Bikers gathered in Dallas, Texas for the 29th annual Mid-South M.I.L.E. event

from Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF)

Like the Midwest’s Heartland STEAM event, the Mid-South M.I.L.E. brings together bikers from neighboring states to discuss legislative priorities, share ideas and build relationships.

CLICK HERE To Read this Event Coverage on Bikernet.com

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Harley-Davidson Reports Global Bike Sales Up 24 Percent In 2021 Q2

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You can read the Company Announcement at their Official Website by Clicking Here.

Second Quarter 2021 Highlights and Results, and Recent Announcements

  • Delivered Q2 GAAP diluted EPS of $1.33, up $1.93 over Q2 2020
  • Q2 H-D, Inc. total revenue up 77 percent over Q2 2020
  • North America Q2 retail sales up 43% over Q2 2020 and up 5% over Q2 2019
  • Delivered strong Motorcycles and Related Products (Motorcycles) segment gross margin and operating margin driven by the Rewire product portfolio adjustments
  • Delivered Financial Services segment Q2 2021 operating income growth of $90 million over Q2 2020 driven by a lower provision for credit losses
  • Launched LiveWire as a standalone brand and introduced LiveWire ONE™ – the electric motorcycle built for the urban experience, with the power and range to take you beyond
  • Revealed Sportster® S, the all-new Sportster motorcycle built on the Revolution Max platform
  • Launched H-D1™ Marketplace today, the ultimate online destination for pre-owned Harley-Davidson motorcycles in North America

Rolling in the right direction.
by Janaki Jitchotvisut from https://www.rideapart.com

On July 21, 2021, Harley-Davidson reported its 2021 Q2 results. The numbers are definitely moving in the right direction, especially when compared to the same time period in 2020. Worldwide Harley motorcycle sales are up 24 percent, due entirely to an impressive sales rebound in North America.

North American sales are up 43 percent year-on-year in Q2, which is the only positive number when broken down by sales region. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (commonly referred to among some OEMs as “EMEA”) are down by 7 percent for the same time period. Asia Pacific sales are down 13 percent, and Latin America sales are down 31 percent.

Taking the entirety of the first six months of 2021 into consideration, worldwide Harley-Davidson bike sales are up 18 percent—which is still good news for the embattled OEM. North American sales are up 38 percent, EMEA sales are down 19 percent, Asia Pacific sales are down 7 percent, and Latin America sales are down 47 percent.

Harley had some explanations for some of the negative numbers, stressing that they’re all part of its overall strategy. EMEA Q2 retail sales, the Motor Company said, went down because Harley stopped sales of the Street and legacy Sportster models in the region. Meanwhile, Latin America sales were negatively impacted by a dealer reduction across the region, as well as “pricing actions across the portfolio, which were executed as part of the Rewire strategy.”

Revenues for Q2 of 2021 are up 99 percent over the same period in 2020. That likely comes as particularly good news, since that contributes to a revenue increase of 45 percent over 2020 for the first six months of the year. While most of these numbers are still below those achieved in 2019, this is clearly the strongest showing since the pandemic became a factor. North American Q2 retail sales stand out as an exception, as those are actually up 5 percent over Q2 2019.

Parts and Accessories sales are likewise up 32 percent for Q2 of 2021, and General Merchandise sales are up 47 percent. Overall, Harley says, it forecasts full-year 2021 motorcycle segment revenue growth to end up between 30 and 35 percent, year-on-year. Since that is just a forecast, we’ll have to see how that prediction pans out over the coming months.

Harley-Davidson’s new stand-alone electric motorcycle – LiveWire One

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President and CEO Jochen Zeitz with the original LiveWire

by Rich Kirchen from https://www.bizjournals.com

With Harley-Davidson Inc. chairman, president and CEO Jochen Zeitz repeating that the company’s electric LiveWire is “an extraordinary product,” details are emerging on a new model that will be called the LiveWire One.

Motorcycle.com reported the name of the first LiveWire-branded electric motorcycle since Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson announced establishing LiveWire as a stand-alone entity. The website said it deciphered the information from a Harley-Davidson filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The new LiveWire One will be revealed in July and will be considered a 2021 model, motorcycle.com said.

The Harley-Davidson filing shows the LiveWire One will claim a peak output of 101 brake horsepower (bhp), which is more than the 70 bhp existing LiveWire model, motorcycle.com said.

A Harley-Davidson spokesman did not immediately respond Thursday to a Milwaukee Business Journal request for comment.

Harley-Davidson delivered the original LiveWire to dealers in fall 2019. The company announced in May that LiveWire will get an official launch in July as a brand in its own right with its own laboratory and showrooms.

Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) initially planned to debut the new LiveWire at the International Motorcycle Show in Irvine, California. However, motorcycle.com reported that the show won’t be held there and Harley is looking to arrange an alternate date and site.

Zeitz, appearing on CNBC Wednesday, discussed the LiveWire strategy but not the specifics of the next phase. He said electrified motorcycles are the future for the industry.

“It might take longer in certain segments such as the traditional Harley-Davidson segment, simply because the technology is not there in terms of range and longevity of a ride that our touring customer wants,” Zeitz said.

The LiveWire product that Harley-Davidson launched in 2019 under the Harley-Davidson brand “was really a product that was more focused and geared towards the urban consumer,” Zeitz said.

“So I felt there was a huge opportunity as we are bridging into electric long term to use the LiveWire — which is the best product out there, the best electric product — but focusing more on an urban customer to actually segment that out and stand it up as its own brand.’’

Harley-Davidson announced in March hiring Ryan Morrissey as chief electric vehicle officer to lead the new electric-vehicle unit. Morrissey previously worked at consulting giant Bain & Company.

Harley-Davidson Announces First Chief Electric Vehicle Officer

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Harley-Davidson, Inc. today announces the appointment of Ryan Morrissey as Chief Electric Vehicle Officer (CEVO).

Effective April 1, Morrissey will join Harley-Davidson with over two decades of experience in disruptive technologies and the development of new business ventures. As a consultant at Bain & Company, he served most recently as a Senior Partner and head of the Automotive & Mobility practice in the Americas. In this role, he led the development of growth, adjacency and M&A strategies for OEMs, tech providers, and retailers specific to the long-range transition to electric vehicles and autonomous fleets. He has worked extensively with leading global OEMs in powersports, heavy equipment and automotive on developing digital channels, EV product strategy and software-based services. As part of Bain’s work with financial investors, he has advised many leading investment firms on acquisitions in mobility.

Morrissey began his career at Lutron Electronics, as the U.S. sales lead for their first generation of software-based control systems for energy management. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

“Ryan has extensive experience with leading OEMs, working on building businesses to develop, commercialize and support electric vehicles. I’m excited to have him join the team to help us lead in electric,” said Jochen Zeitz, chairman, president and CEO, Harley-Davidson. “As we announced in February as part of The Hardwire, we’ll be talking more about our electric strategy later in the year.”

Harley-Davidson recently unveiled The Hardwire, its 2021-2025 strategic plan, with a dedicated focus on electric, targeting long-term profitable growth and shareholder value and aiming to enhance its position as the most desirable motorcycle brand in the world.

Harley-Davidson Unveils 2021-2025 Strategic Plan; Targets Increased Profitability

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from https://www.rttnews.com

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG) on Tuesday unveiled ‘The Hardwire’, its 2021-2025 strategic plan that targets long-term profitable growth and shareholder value, and also aims to enhance its position in the strongest motorcycle segments.

The motorcycle maker targets increased profitability and low double-digit earnings per share growth through 2025. It also projects single-digit revenue growth in the Motorcycles segment, with solid growth expectations across all businesses.

Harley-Davidson said it will invest in the core segments of Touring, large Cruiser and Trike to strengthen and grow its position. The company will expand into Adventure Touring and increase profitability within the Cruiser segment to unlock untapped volume and margin.

The company noted that Pan America, its first Adventure Touring motorcycle, is an example of the company’s selective expansion into a high-potential segment that has untapped potential in the U.S.

As part of expanding its Financial Services offerings, the company will launch Harley-Davidson Certified, a pre-owned motorcycle program supporting growth expected across all complementary businesses.

The company said it will strengthen its commitment to electric motorcycles with the creation of a dedicated division focused exclusively on leading the future of electric motorcycles, following the success of its LiveWire motorcycle.

Harley-Davidson also said it will extend employee ownership to all employees by offering an equity grant to about 4,500 employees, aligning with its new approach to Inclusive Stakeholder Management.

from https://www.bennetts.co.uk

Harley-Davidson outlines vision for the future

Back in July 2018 Harley-Davidson unveiled an incredibly ambitious and detailed plan for its future – confirming 16 new water-cooled models from 500cc to 1250cc in an array of styles, a new small-capacity machine, huge electric bike expansion plans and a reinvented shopping experience. It was a multi-year, multi-pronged onslaught that was intended to expand the firm’s reach away from its cruiser comfort zone and bring huge new opportunities.

Now virtually all those ideas have been dropped with the unveiling of Harley-Davidson’s new ‘Hardwire’ strategy, which replaces the previous ideas of bold expansion into uncharted territories with a renewed focus on the firm’s core touring, cruiser and trike segments and established, wealthy markets.

The change isn’t unexpected. Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz has been taking the firm in this direction with his interim ‘Rewire’ strategy since last year when he replaced Matt Levatich at the firm’s helm. The ambitious 2018 strategy, which had been dubbed ‘More Roads to Harley-Davidson’ and intended to see the firm through to at least 2022, was Levatich’s brainchild and Zeitz immediately reversed course on taking over.

Harley’s new plan isn’t as attention-grabbing as the ‘More Roads’ strategy but it’s a play-it-safe route that’s intended to bring the firm back to growth and sustained profitability after a few tough years culminating in the coronavirus pandemic that saw sales volumes and incomes slashed in 2020.

On the surface it’s easy to see the Hardwire as a step backwards. After all, in an ideal world the ‘More Roads’ plan, which would have brought Harley into completely new fields including adventure bikes, naked roadsters, even sports bikes, could have transformed the company’s image. However, that might be a rose-tinted view to take.

Sure, expansion is a good thing, but the risks were at least as big as the potential gains. After all, every one of the new markets that ‘More Roads’ proposed to enter was already populated by other manufacturers, all with years of experience and product development focussed on those fields. Just as firms like Honda or BMW have always struggled to get a foothold in Harley’s cruiser territory, the chances are that H-D would have hit rocks in its efforts to muscle in on markets dominated by others. Worse, the focus on new goals brought the risk of Harley taking its eye off the ball in the US cruiser market that it dominates, opening the door to rivals who’d be only too happy to take a slice of that pie.

So what are the ‘Hardwire’ ideas? According to the firm, the first priority is profit. Not something that customers might want to hear – after all, it’s their money that goes into those profits – but shareholders will no doubt be happy.

The route to more profit is, according to the plan, strengthening Harley’s position in the touring, large cruiser and trike segments. In other words, focussing on the bikes that the company already sells rather than putting all its hope into potential future products.

Next up comes ‘selective expansion’, with the focus on the headline model from 2018’s plan that has survived the cull – the Pan America adventure bike. Virtually every bike firm on the planet has looked on with envy as BMW romps from sales record to sales record with successive generations of the R1250GS, and it’s a market that Harley believes it can take a bite from. The bike’s full reveal will come later this month along with more news of another survivor of the ‘More Roads’ plan, the as-yet-nameless cruiser that bears the same water-cooled Revolution Max engine that debuts in the Pan America.

Electric bikes – a field that Harley has become an unlikely leader in after the development efforts that went into the LiveWire – will also play a part in the firm’s future. Harley is creating a separate division to focus on electric products, separating them from its main R&D efforts. During a conference call when the plans were announced, Zeitz suggested that the near-term future for electric motorcycles remained urban transport, perhaps a hint that the planned Harley electric scooter that’s been in development for a couple of years will be the next move in that direction.

Elsewhere, Harley wants to grow its non-motorcycle business, the parts and accessories, merchandise and financial services arms of the company that have long provided a reliable back-up income stream. As part of this, the firm plans to create a used bike resale scheme – Harley-Davidson Certified – for customers who want a factory-approved second-hand Harley.

During the announcement of the Hardwire plan, Zeitz mentioned more than once that the firm is going to be staying quiet about upcoming models until their launches – a significant reversal from the ‘More Roads’ plan which set out a detailed roadmap of several years’ of planned model introductions and one that means in future the firm isn’t going to be in the uncomfortable position of cancelling bikes that it had previously announced. That’s exactly what happened with the Bronx streetfighter, which was pulled from the firm’s plans just months before it was due to go on sale, having again been part of the ‘More Roads’ expansion strategy.

It’s worth noting, however, that despite a renewed focus on the US market and established product areas, Harley’s extensive footnotes to its plan reveal it still intends to ‘develop and maintain’ a relationship with Chinese firm Qianjiang, which is developing the proposed Harley 338R small-capacity parallel twin, and a relationship with Hero MotoCorp in India, which will be distributing Harleys there and also using the brand’s name on Indian-developed products in the future.

The rest of Harley’s announcements today related to the firm’s financial performance in 2020, which was understandably deeply impacted by the COVID pandemic.

For the full year, the firm’s overall revenue was down 24%. In 2020 the firm shipped 145,246 bikes, down 32% on 2019’s total, with ‘touring’ and ‘cruiser’ models making up more than 76% of those machines, while the smaller ‘Street’ and ‘Sportster’ ranges combined added up to less than 24%.

Harley’s activist investor backs business reboot strategy

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by Rajesh Kumar Singh from https://www.reuters.com

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An activist investor who shook up Harley-Davidson Inc (HOG.N) earlier this year said he is impressed with the changes initiated by new Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz to turn around the 117-year-old motorcycle company.

Impala Asset Management, the $2.4 billion hedge fund, pushed for the ouster of Zeitz’s predecessor Matt Levatich in January. Months later, it tried to install two directors on Harley’s board, asking for operational fixes to recover its market share in the United States, Europe and Japan.

“For the first time in five to six years, the company is on the right track again,” Bob Bishop, founder and chief investment officer at Impala, told Reuters.

Zeitz, who took the reins in February, is rebooting Harley’s business by shifting the focus back to big bikes, traditional markets like the United States and Europe, and older and wealthier customers.

The new strategy echoes some of the changes Impala has been pushing for. Bishop said Harley should not pursue sales growth at any cost. Instead, it needs to market itself like Ferrari and become an “aspirational” brand, he added.

Bishop does not buy the argument that Harley’s sales in the United States – its biggest market – are suffering because of an aging customer base. He dubbed that an “excuse” to cover the company’s shrinking market share, citing evidence from Europe and Japan where industry sales of motorcycles have been growing despite older demographics.

“When you build up the brand, you will sell more bikes,” Bishop said. “Get rid of this idea that the demographics is killing them.”

Impala bought 1.2 million Harley shares in the quarter through June, increasing its stake to 2.52% from 1.73% in the first quarter of the year.

It also expects an agreement with Harley next month on a new independent board member, Bishop said, as part of an agreement reached in March to settle a board fight.

Under Zeitz, Harley has tightened supplies and cut production, driving up prices for pre-owned bikes, which used to be a drag on new motorcycle sales. It plans to reduce product portfolio and exit lower volume markets, though the company has not specified which ones.

Bishop says models selling below 300 units a year and markets like India and Latin America that have been a “cash drain” could face the axe.

Harley declined to comment.

Robin Farley, an analyst at UBS, reckons the new strategy could shore up Harley’s earnings by saving costs, but would not fix its demand problem. Hopes of higher profit, however, have driven up the company’s shares about 50% since late April when Zeitz first shared his strategy.

Impala expects the restructuring to lift Harley’s earnings to $4 a share next year from $3.36 last year and $5 a share in 2022 even if retail sales remain at 2019 levels.

Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv, on average, expect adjusted earnings of $2.48 per share in 2021 and $2.98 in 2022.

“This is a fundamentally strong company that just lost its way,” Bishop said.

Harley-Davidson to cut hundreds of jobs as part of turnaround strategy

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by Rajesh Kumar Singh from https://www.reuters.com

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Harley-Davidson Inc (HOG.N) on Thursday said it will lay off 500 employees this year as part of new Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz’s efforts to revive the struggling motorcycle maker.

As part of the overhaul, Chief Financial Officer John Olin will leave the company effective immediately. Darrell Thomas, treasurer, will become interim chief financial officer, it said.

Harley-Davidson’s sales have been declining for the past five years in the United States, its largest market, as its baby-boomer customer base ages. The economic pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic has further dented retail demand.

In response to weak sales, the Milwaukee-based company has cut production, leading to 140 job cuts last month at its factories in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The latest cuts are in addition to those layoffs, a company spokeswoman said.

Zeitz, who took over in February, is hailed for turning around the Puma brand’s near-bankrupt business.

His restructuring strategy, dubbed The Rewire, is aimed at making Harley a leaner and more nimble organization. It seeks to reset product lines, focus on the company’s core strengths and prioritize profitable markets.

“Significant changes are necessary, and we must move in new directions,” Zeitz said.

Harley said the measures announced on Thursday will lay the foundation for a five-year strategic plan to revive sales that the company expects to share in the fourth quarter.

In all, the restructuring will eliminate 700 positions globally. It will result in a $50 million restructuring charge in 2020, including $42 million in the second quarter.

While the overhaul is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Harley said it will likely cause additional restructuring charges in 2021.

The company will provide more details of the financial impact in its second-quarter earnings report later this month.

Harley’s shares were last down 1% at $25.33.

Harley-Davidson appoints Jochen Zeitz as President & CEO: New plan to redefine brand

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by Rahul Kapoor from https://www.financialexpress.com

With Matt Levatich stepping down, Harley Davidson had appointed Jochen Zeitz to lead the brand in the interim. But Zeitz has now been appointed as the president and CEO for the Milwaukee based motorcycle manufacturer.

Harley-Davidson, the iconic American motorcycle brand has elevated interim President and CEO Jochen Zeitz as the new President and CEO of the company. Zeitz was appointed into the interim position after the former head of the brand Matt Levatich stepped down after a dismal sales performance of the brand that it witnessed in recent years. Zeitz who is currently the chairman of the board of Harley-Davidson brings his experience as the CEO of the sports apparel and goods brand Puma to the role. He also has plans to restructure the company and also redefine Harley Davidson.

In a press statement, Zeitz said “Over the next few months, we will re-wire the business and redefine a new 5-year strategic plan later this year. I will then oversee the implementation of these changes and re-ignite Harley-Davidson as one of the most revered and iconic brands in the world,”

Zeitz is working towards an all-new brand strategy called “The Rewire” that would allow Harley-Davidson to enter new markets and segments as well. The plan is said to develop further in the coming months which will incorporate key products, and initiatives from the current ongoing strategy for the brand, but with a key focus on markets and products that can help drive profits and growth.

Harley-Davidson has found the last few years to be difficult in terms of unit sales. This has been more prominent in its home market – the USA as the modern consumers have moved away from heavyweight cruisers to adventure touring models or ADVs. Zeitz has been on the board of directors of the Harley-Davidson since 2007 and has served as the chairman and CEO of Puma from 1993 to 2011, and CFO from 1993 to 2005.