Tough Times at Harley Davidson

In undeniably tough times for a legendary company, could we actually be witnessing the downfall of Harley Davidson? On Tuesday, the iconic motorcycle company released its figures for the second quarter of 2017 revealing a downward trend in overall revenues compared to the same period in the previous year.

Accordingly, motorcycle sales decreased 4.5 percent from 1.33 to 1.27 billion U.S. dollars due to lower shipments year-to-year. Also, the general merchandise division (t-shirts, necklaces) suffered, losing 16.8 percent in revenue over the year. The company explains this with the fact that the overall U.S. industry is down for the same period.

Yet, president and CEO of Harley Davidson, Matt Levatich, seems optimistic for the future: "Our long-term strategy, focused on building the next generation of Harley-Davidson riders, is our true north. Our new product investment is one pillar of our long-term strategy to build riders globally and we are energized by the strength of our model year 2018 motorcycles coming later this summer".