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House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in September used a Harley-Davidson plant in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, as a backdrop for touting the GOP tax measure signed by President Donald Trump late last year, Vox relayed. And Mr. Trump met with Harley-Davidson executives and union representatives at the White House in February, saying the company's business would only get better.
Four months after Ryan's appearance at the Harley-Davidson factory in his home state, 800 workers in Kansas City, Missouri, were told they'd be out of jobs when their plant closes in 2019 and operations shift to York, Pennsylvania, resulting in a net loss of 350 jobs.
Only days after the Kansas City layoff news, Harley-Davidson announced a dividend hike and stock buyback plan worth about $696 million.
The Kansas City plant's closure came as Harley-Davidson is struggling with declining sales and rising costs. It's also consolidating operations at three other factories.
originally posted by: rickymouse
What are they supposed to do, build bikes and stock them in warehouses till people start buying them and go bankrupt?
To me this just shows that American companies are still suffering because of imports, which Trump actually has not done anything to fix.
originally posted by: JinMI
Lastly is the competition. New entries into the market and other companies putting out machines that can compete with what HD is offering.
A couple of days ago we reported on the somewhat gloomy news from Harley-Davidson about its year-end financial statement, in which it announced a downturn in sales and the upcoming closure of its Kansas City, MO, factory.
Meanwhile, Polaris (parent company of Indian Motorcycles and Slingshots) is painting a rosier picture with its financial statement released this week. Overall sales revenue in 2017 was up from $4.516 billion to $5.428 billion. Motorcycle sales made up 11% of Polaris’ sales income, and they were up 7% for the year (excluding Victory).