Harley-Davidson is in the midst of a profound transformation. The figures for the 2025 financial year are clear, CEO Artie Starrs' strategic course has been set, and if you look closely, you will see that this reset not only affects balance sheets and budgets, but also the structures of the company itself. In the coming weeks, I will report on further changes that are currently emerging.

What the Official Fiscal Year 2025 Numbers Show

Harley-Davidson presented its results for the 2025 financial year on February 10, 2026. Group sales fell to 4.473 billion dollars, a decline of 14 percent compared to the previous year. The motorcycle business (HDMC) closed with an operating loss of 29 million dollars, after a profit of 278 million dollars in 2024. 132,535 motorcycles were sold worldwide, a decrease of 12 percent.

Key Metric	2025	2024	Change
Consolidated Revenue	USD 4.473 billion	USD 5.187 billion	-14%
Net profit	USD 339 million	USD 455 million	-26%
Diluted EPS Full Year	2.78 USD	3.44 USD	-19%
HDMC Revenue	USD 3.578 billion	USD 4.122 billion	-13%
HDMC Operating Income	USD -29 million	USD +278 million	-110%
Retail Sales Worldwide	132,535 units	151,229 units	-12%
HDFS operating result	USD 490 million	USD 248 million	+97%

The fourth quarter was a particularly strong one: Group sales fell by 28% to 496 million dollars, with a loss per share of 2.44 dollars. At the same time, North America showed a retail increase of 5 percent in Q4, driven by strength in the touring category. This can be explained by the deliberate reduction of dealer inventories by 17 percent over the course of the year. Reducing wholesale volumes means losing sales in the short term, but creates the basis for a healthier dealer structure.​

Why the EMEA Numbers Need More Context

The EMEA market lost approximately 11 percent in full-year 2025, falling to 21,454 retail units. Behind this number lies, to a significant extent, the Euro 5 pull-forward effect from the second half of 2024.​

The stricter Euro 5+ emissions standard came into force on January 1, 2025. Dealers and importers had massively reduced stocks and brought forward registrations at the end of 2024. In December 2024 alone, over 13,000 new motorcycles over 601 cm³ were registered in Germany, almost seven times the normal monthly figure. The entire industry followed the same pattern: Honda lost 14.3 percent, BMW 26.7 percent and Yamaha 33.9 percent . In this context, a decline of 11 percent for the EMEA year as a whole is not an outlier, but the reality of the industry.

Southern Europe grows while the north struggles

Southern Europe is performing significantly better than the north. Italy set a historic record in 2024 with over 166,000 new motorcycle registrations . Europe remains the most stable global region for the brand with an EMEA decline of just two percent in the first quarter of 2025, while North America lost 24 percent in the same period. .

In the DACH region, the Euro 5 pull-forward effect is being compounded by additional structural burdens that are weakening the market beyond the pure regulatory effect. Despite a slight recovery at the start of 2026, consumer sentiment in Germany remains deep in negative territory: the GfK Consumer Confidence Index stood at -26.9 points in January 2026.

Motorcycles are leisure products in the premium segment, and experience has shown that they are the first purchases that consumers postpone in the face of economic uncertainty. Added to this is the political debate about driving bans for combustion engines, noise protection regulations on popular routes and a lack of planning security for buyers who want to invest EUR 15,000 or more in a motorcycle. The situation is similar in Switzerland and Austria, albeit less pronounced.

So anyone who blames Harley-Davidson alone for the weak DACH figures is overlooking the overall economic and political environment in which the brand operates here.

How HDFS freed up one billion dollars

The largest single item in the 2025 annual report is not a loss, but a strategic liberation. The financial division HDFS has entered into a partnership with KKR and PIMCO that fundamentally changes the business model. The result: HDFS paid out a dividend of one billion dollars to its parent company HDI in the fourth quarter of 2025. At the same time, bonds maturing in 2028 and 2029 with interest rates of just under 6 to 6.5 percent were withdrawn from the market early. HDFS achieved a record operating profit of 490 million dollars for the full year.

At the end of 2025, the Group had cash and cash equivalents of 3.1 billion dollars, compared to 1.59 billion dollars a year earlier. This is not a picture of a company struggling to survive.​

Shareholders were also rewarded in the loss-making year

Despite the operational pressure, Harley-Davidson returned a total of 434 million dollars to its shareholders in the 2025 financial year: 347 million dollars via discretionary share buybacks and 86 million dollars via dividends. For the first quarter of 2026, the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 0.1875 dollars per share, payable on March 17, 2026. This is also a statement about the state of the company.​

Artie Starrs on tour in Europe - The dealers are the heart chamber

Artie Starrs has been at the helm of the Group as CEO since October 1, 2025. His background is not in the motorcycle business, but in the scaling of complex retail structures: 18,000 branches in 110 countries as CEO of Pizza Hut, over 100 locations as CEO of Topgolf. The fact that he acquired a Heritage Classic privately before officially taking office has been registered in the community.​

No brand loyalty without retailers

At the end of January 2026, Starrs completed its first major trip to Europe, visiting ten cities in four countries in six days. From the Motor Bike Expo in Verona via Milan, Zurich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Brussels and Paris to London, plus the European central warehouse in Antwerp. At every dealer meeting, he took handwritten notes in a notebook, no presentations, no stage appearances. He met the European dealer association and was accompanied by Francesco Vanni, Sales Director EMEA.

The fact that Starrs completed this journey so early and so personally is no coincidence. The dealership is not just a sales channel at Harley-Davidson. It is the heart of the company. No corporate marketing in the world can replace what a good dealer does every day: Building trust, winning new customers, keeping existing riders in the community and bringing the brand to life. Anyone who forgets this not only loses sales, but also the connection to the base. Starrs seems to have understood this.​

Reset and job cuts as part of the new course

The externally visible clean-up has an internal counterpart. Starrs has announced a company-wide reset that is intended to reduce running costs by at least 150 million US dollars. The overhead structures are designed for significantly higher sales volumes than the market currently provides. An external consultancy is reviewing the entire cost base.​

A company spokesperson has confirmed that staff reductions will be part of this process. Specific figures have not yet been communicated. The first personnel changes that are currently emerging in the EMEA structure show that this reset does not stop at the management level. I will report on this separately shortly. A new strategic plan is to be presented in May 2026.

Fewer staff also means less capacity

Reducing costs by cutting jobs is understandable from a business point of view, but involves a risk that is often neglected in the restructuring debate. Those who dismantle structures that were designed for higher volumes are betting that the business will not grow faster than the organization can handle. When the new models from „Chapter 2" take off and demand picks up, people are needed to support this growth. Fewer water carriers also means less water at some point. How Starrs solves this balancing act will be one of the crucial questions of 2026.

Internally, there are also plans to return to the classic Bar and Shield logo and to move back into the historic company building on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee. Both are signals that resonate with dealers and the community.​

The Homecoming Festival returns to its anniversary format

The annual Homecoming Festival in Milwaukee is being scrapped. The event planned for July 2026 has been canceled. Harley-Davidson is returning to a five-year cycle. The next major event will take place in 2028, when the brand celebrates its 125th anniversary. As an alternative for 2026, Harley-Davidson will become the Official Motorcycle of Summerfest and presenting sponsor of the 4 July Fireworks in Milwaukee. A much slimmer format with a strong symbolic content for the anniversary year of the United States.

What the Group itself expects for 2026

Key Metric	Forecast 2026
Retail Sales Worldwide	130,000 to 135,000 units
HDMC wholesale deliveries	130,000 to 135,000 units
HDMC Operating Income	USD -40 million to +10 million
HDFS operating result	USD 45 to 60 million
LiveWire operating loss	USD 70 to 80 million
Capital investments	USD 175 to 200 million

The figures show that 2026 will not be a record year. But it is a year in which wholesale and actual demand are to be synchronized again. The foundation for this has been laid: 3.1 billion dollars in liquidity, over one billion dollars in old debt repaid and a partnership with KKR and PIMCO that will make HDFS more capital-efficient.​

Chapter 2 and a booming second-hand market as a brand signal

With „Chapter 2″, 13 completely new motorcycles on a new platform are about to be launched on the market. LiveWire is also slowly moving in the right direction worldwide: 653 electric motorcycles were sold globally in 2025 and the operating loss fell by 32 percent to 75 million dollars. At the same time, Google searches for used Harley-Davidson models have more than doubled since 2020 . A brand that nobody talks about anymore doesn't generate search queries. The interest is there.​

2026 is the declared transition year. Anyone reading the steps taken in recent months as an overall picture will see a company that is working according to plan: Cleaning up the balance sheet, adapting structures, presenting the new strategy in May. More calculation than crisis.

Harleysite 01.03.2026