New Harley-Davidson authorized dealer in Rümlang near Zurich
Harley-Davidson is wasting no time in setting up a new Harley-Davidson dealership in the Zurich area. Bütikofer, a company already well known to Harley-Davidson in Switzerland, will build a new store in Rümlang near Zurich in accordance with Harley-Davidson specifications and open it in July 2022.
According to Harley-Davidson, the pop-up store will open at the new location in April 2022, allowing customers to get to know the brand and conduct initial sales talks.
New Harley-Davidson store with over 2311m2 total area
The modern Harley-Davidson store has an attic floor, which is accessed via a semi-open mezzanine floor. The ground floor will house an exhibition of the new Harley-Davidson models. The spacious rooms are flooded with natural light, and the project drawings show a very modern and open design. According to information from Bütikofer, the showroom, mezzanine floor, and attic floor will cover 832 m².2 of the area.
The warehouse has a generous 442 m2 awarded and the workshop 395 m2, where in future not only workshop and service work will be carried out on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but preparations will also be made for the professional customization of the motorcycles. The remaining 642 m2 will probably be allocated to the exterior surface, but the company has not provided any further details on this as yet.
How does the change of dealer fit in with the single-brand strategy?
At the turn of the year, Harley-Davidson terminated its contract with Harley-Heaven Bächli AG, now a former Harley-Davidson dealer. Today, the company is called Motorcycle-Heaven Bächli AG and continues to operate as an independent dealer in Dietkon, located northwest of Zurich. According to information available to date, one reason for the termination was its proximity to other motorcycle brands. The difference seems to be that the proximity to other brands was visible locally and apparently both parties were unable to find a solution that would have been satisfactory for all involved.
The new Harley-Davidson authorized dealer for the Zurich area will open in July 2022.
The Bütikofer company is part of the Weinfelden AG group of companies. The group is a particularly strong player in the automotive sector in Thurgau and Zurich. The Moto77 company, with its official Ducati dealership and another Harley-Davidson dealership, Moto84, in Weinfelden, also belongs to the group.
The companies belonging to Weinfelden AG are geographically separate, but it is surprising that no completely independent successor with no business connections, however indirect, to other brands was awarded the contract. There are only two possibilities for this: either no other applicant for this location in Switzerland could be found at such short notice, or Harley-Davidson does not see it as such a big deal as long as no other motorcycle brand from the respective operator is present around the Harley-Davidson store.
The new Harley-Davidson dealership in Rümlang is located approximately 17 kilometers north of Zurich, away from the former dealership.
External link to the new H-D authorized dealer!
Customers are generally rarely interested in these corporate strategies, yet they ultimately determine long-term success!
Customers who have been satisfied with Bächli up to now will have to decide in future whether to remain loyal to the brand or to the retailer. Of course, it is possible to do both, but it is only natural that customers will have to make a decision at some point. Let's wait and see whether there will be a winner or only losers over time. Ultimately, the decision lies with the customer, and that's a good thing!
Text: Harleysite Image credits/approval Harley-Davidson
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