Buell is no more

[seric]

Nice data Keith.

I wonder what the profit margins are for each segment - I have to think that general merchandise is going to be much higher margin than motorcycles.

That is true, and I did not take that into effect. Profit margins on bikes themselves tend to be very low. I added on to my original post to reflect that. It now appears HD still might make more off of it's bikes, but by a much slimmer margin.

[the_grinch]

133 million?! That's crazy, hell there is only 305 million people in the U.S.


I mean Christ, Honda only sold 21.2 million gasoline powered devices worldwide in 2005 ; a much better sales year than last year. That means 21.2 million motorcycles, atv's,cars, generators, lawn mowers, etc., total, worldwide. Versus 133 million Harleys?


That 21.2 million units sold worldwide was a single year record for Honda btw.


133 million is also quite an increase in units sold from 2006, when Harley only shipped 349,196 units for the year.

The motorcycle sales portion of HD's total revenue seems to be hovering around 35% of total revenue per year, for about the last 20 years anyway. Funny, cause they pay about 35% of their revenue in income tax...


To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have thought that HD has even built 133 million motorcycles in the 106 Year history of the company.

[the_grinch]

Looking at their financial data, that's not exactly true.
1.8billion in Harley Sales comes from the sale of 133 million bikes for an average of $13,000 each.

I'm sure you will edit this too

[epim]

From http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008...kes-its-lumps/ :

“We expect U.S. economic conditions and ongoing consumer concerns to continue to create challenges at least through the end of the year,” said Jim Ziemer, Harley-Davidson’s chief executive. Still, he said, the company expects to ship more than 300,000 bikes for 2008 — a total seldom exceeded in company history.

[epim]

Digging through that earnings report it all makes sense..

Global Sales:
Buell AND MV Agusta motorcycles sold from 01/09-06/09: 6900
Harley-Davidson motorcycles sold from 01/09-06/09: 132,849

To put that in perspective.. Only about 700 more Buell and MV Agusta motorcycles were sold over all.. than HD bikes in Japan.
NET REVENUE (in Thousands) for 01/09-06/09

Harley Davidson Motorcycles $1,819.518
Buell & MV Agusta Motorcycles $71,199
Parts & Accessories: $401,226
General Merchandise: $144,792
Other: $7,558

So there you go, HD made more money selling t-shirts than MV Agusta and Buell motorcycles combined. Ouch.

People have, and will continue to purchase HD motorcycles for the name, the image, and the lifestyle they feel it provides them. Some people purchase HD motorcycles because they love motorcycling and that type of bike. The rest just want an identity.

Lacking the same type of cultural following: Buell never had a chance.

Once you compare CAPEX, advertising, R&D for all of their brands it becomes obvious:

CAPEX: It's the same bike year after year. Minimal improvements.
R&D: What R&D do you need to run HD? None, really. Same damn bike year after year.
Advertising: Do you even need to bother? All of their advertising was done for them in the 70s. They're done. Every so often remind the RUBs that a harley will make their balding and ED disappear. They're badasses now.

As for Buell and MV Agusta, you still need to work to build the best and sell the bike. Higher cost, lower return. The HD brand is easy money.

[samatye]

so the 133 million was 133,000. cool. nice work you two! craziness.

[the_grinch]

Another tid-bit for someone else to research,

I believe that HD accounts for half of all motorcycle sales in the US. Harley 50% all other brands combined 50%. I have wondered if they are counting off road bikes also, or just street bike sales.


*Edit*


So it seems, as best as I can tell, that HD represents 25% of us moto sales, with honda 25%, yamaha 17%, suzuki 11%, and kawasaki 9%.

I still don't know if off road bikes factor in to those stats


Btw, the year I started riding, 275,000 motorcycles were sold new. In 2004, 1.2 million motorcycles were sold new.


*edit*


So it seems that off road, dual sport, and scooter sales account for roughly 1/3 of all motorcycle sales in the US. Which means that HD accounts for about 2/5 of motorcycle sales in markets in which it competes.

God damn statistics get muddled and easy to pervert, just rounding off can shift outcomes tremendously!

Note:
It is three hours past my bedtime.

[Rotten]

QOTD from @superbikeplanet on Erik Buell


"...just because you use your own press releases to call yourself a visionary doesn't make it so."

[the_grinch]

You should hear him talk about his own racing accomplishments

[beauregard]

Harley Santa Maria is offer $5000.00 off on Buells for select peeps. If you want one give me a call and I'll give you the contact info.

[Rotten]

Did you mean $500.00 off?

[Junkie]

From the prices one of the dealers on BARF posted, he means $5000 off.

[the_grinch]

Can they finance me the other six grand?

[Rotten]

You mean they cost more than $5000 to start with?

Bummer.

[Connar]

I looked at HD's income statements from 2003 to now. The Buell brand made more money last year then any other year since 03. In the first half of 09 their income statement puts them on track to make the same if not more by years end. Looking at the last 4 quarter's you see HD sale declining while Buell sale increasing.

So why drop them now? Who knows. Sure they were not making as much money as other HD lines but they did make money. The reason I think they did this is the hope that refocus'ng on HD brand will have a greater return in the long run then keeping both.

What is done is done, Buell is gone. From what I read HD plans on holding on to the IP the Eric developed so the chance of a spin off is not likely.