The yearly results for Harley-Davidson are out, and once again they paint a dark figure for the iconic American motorcycle brand, as its total worldwide sales collapsed like a dying star, with a decline of 4.3% to bring the company to a total of 218,273 units sold worldwide.
Things were worse in the domestic market, with Harley-Davidson’s sales in the USA showing a 5.2% drop (125,960 units) from 2018’s figures.
This leaves the Bar & Shield brand’s international sales down an even 3% (92,313 units) – for those doing the math.
| 4th Quarter | Full-Year | |||||
| 2019 | 2018 | Change | 2019 | 2018 | Change | |
| U.S. | 20,204 | 20,849 | -3.1% | 125,960 | 132,868 | -5.2% |
| EMEA | 7,187 | 7,353 | -2.3% | 44,086 | 46,602 | -5.4% |
| Asia Pacific | 7,691 | 7,244 | 6.2 % | 29,513 | 28,724 | 2.7 % |
| Latin America | 2,513 | 2,515 | -0.1% | 9,768 | 10,167 | -3.9% |
| Canada | 1,159 | 1,350 | -14.1% | 8,946 | 9,690 | -7.7% |
| International Total | 18,550 | 18,462 | 0.5 % | 92,313 | 95,183 | -3.0% |
| Worldwide Total | 38,754 | 39,311 | -1.4% | 218,273 | 228,051 | -4.3% |
As one can imagine, Wall Street didn’t take the news kindly, with Harley-Davidson stock dropping roughly 3% on the news. This is due in part to investor confidence in the brand, but also because of the hit that the sales drop has meant to Harley-Davidson’s financials.
Yearly revenue for Harley-Davidson was down 8% in 2019, with the operating income down 31% compared to last year.
The only positive one can take from the Harley-Davidson balance sheet is the revenue increase coming from the company’s financial services division, which was up 5.5%. However, the operating income from Harley-Davidson Financial ended down 8.6% for the year.
Despite all this, Harley-Davidson’s CEO Matt Levatich remains committed to the company’s change in business direction, as it promises a better long-term stability for the brand than the company’s past trend of focusing solely on the cruiser market and baby boomer generation.
The question for Harley-Davidson loyalists (and financial investors) though is how much bleeding will still need to come from Harley-Davidson before the company is healthy again?
Our guess is that Harley-Davidson still has some tough sales reports still in its future, and it will be several years before the brand is stable again…if it makes it that far.
Source: Harley-Davidson
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