Harley Davidson and the economy

My post last week prompted a long time reader of my site a simple question? What exactly are the sales statistics for the motorcycle industry? Well thanks for asking Mark… So I present one of the latest 25 July PR release for Harley Davidson – one of the economic indicators of the motorcycling industry for the ‘Western market’ any way because they are viewed as the ‘bell weather’ motorcycle brand. 

Harley Davidson motorcycles are not mechanically the best ones available and are not admired for their tech but they have the brand image, the sound  and their models can be customised into what can only described as automotive art. Due to high retail purchase price they sell in good economic times and fade during the bad. Since it is summer in the US their latest statistics are slightly skewed – take note.

In the first 6 months of 2013 Harley Davidson had a net income of $495.9 million on sales of 3.37 billion US dollars. Compared to the same period $419.3 million in 2012 its quite an increase. World wide Harley Davidson shipped 159,928 motorcycles in the first 6 months. Admittedly sales where down in the US by 3.6% due to poor weather apparently. For 12 months they expect to ship between 258,000-264,000 motorcycles world wide!

Finally I’m posting this out of interest – Harley Davidson parts and accessories sales earned $453.6 million- general merchandise earned $153.8 million for the company and income for the finance division earned $145.7 million. Mind you they reported a long term debt liability of around 5 billion dollars – ouch!