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Polaris sells Indian Motorcycle

dpetrick

dpetrick

Moderator
Staff member
I live in Spirit Lake, Iowa, where Indian Motorcycles are built. It was announced yesterday that Polaris has sold Indian Motorcycle to a equity capital group, out of California. Obviously this has caused quite a stir in our community, as Indian is one of the largest employers. There is a lot of chatter on social media sites talking about this sale. Indian is a very small part of Polaris, 7% of their total sales, or about $470 million dollars, and the release said that Indian would be a stand alone company, and work on innovation and growth of the brand. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out in the coming months. The new CEO has a lot of experience in the motorcycle business with Harley Davidson, Vance and Hines and other motorcycle related companies. Spirit lake has a population of about 5000, Dickinson County has a population of about 17000, and Indian is one of the largest employers, along with Pure Fishing and tourism. So anything that could effect the job situation is a big deal.
 
I was selling Victory motorcycles at a large multi brand dealership when Polaris pulled the plug. They sent emails to the dealerships on a Sunday night, to be read Monday morning, informing them of the decision. Victory's were a more reliable bike than Indian.
 
Polaris decided Indian was not going to make the returns on investment that it wanted going forward and a declining customer base. Pretty much the same decision they made when they grew tired of Victory other than they could not find anyone to sell that brand to. The motorcycle industry is in contraction and more makes will disappear if they do not find a new customer base.
 
The appeal of "Big Iron" is losing it's base as riders get older. Those that still have the need to ride are moving to 3 wheels (or golf carts). BRP appears to be asleep at the switch. The Canyon is a niche market but the Spyder/Ryker line is an obvious 'off-ramp' for all those baby boomers that still have a pulse.
I recall a while back seeing TV ads for Spyders. Hello? Anyone in Quebec paying attention?
 
Probably didn't help profits when the AMA changed the rules for flat track bikes.
Suddenly Polaris didn't have a market for their $50,000 race bikes.
Hope they shift some production from another plant to Spirit Lake.
 
Polaris **** the bed when they killed Victory. It was a much better bike than the Indian ever hoped to be. It had "new" styling vs a rehash of WW2 styling; innovative looks; and good handling. I loved mine, almost wish I still had it.
 
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