Harley books $75 million in fresh restructuring costs, exits India

United States (US) motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson said on Thursday, after 11 years of operations in India, it expects to report $75 million in additional restructuring costs for 2020 related to actions that it refers to as “The Rewire”, including discontinuing its sales and manufacturing operations in the country.

“Between August 6, 2020 and September 23, 2020, the company approved commitments to additional restructuring actions under The Rewire related to optimizing its global dealer network, exiting certain international markets, and discontinuing its sales and manufacturing operations in India,” the company said in a statement

The announcement comes two months after Harley unveiled a strategy to shift focus back to more profitable motorcycles and core markets such as the US.

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Earlier in the year, Harley said that it planned to reduce its product portfolio and exit lower volume markets, without specifying which ones.

The company said it now expects total restructuring costs of about $169 million in 2020, and this will also include a workforce reduction of about 70 employees in India, a market where its annual sales volumes account for less than 5 per cent of the company’s total.

The company reported a loss of 60 cents per share for the quarter through June, compared with a profit of $1.23 per share a year ago. Analysts had on average expected the profit to come in at 4 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Motorcycles and related products revenue dived 53% year-on-year to $669 million, hurt by the temporary suspension of production during the quarter due lockdowns to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.