New structures at Harley-Davidson

Content overview:

It's been about a year now that there have been signs that there will be some changes in the Harley-Davidson Milwaukee leadership team. At Christmas 2019, an upper-level employee in the USA left the company. That was just the beginning, as the head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Dr. Christian Arnezeder left the company in February 2020 after a good two decades.

That alone caused a lot of unrest and when the news came at the end of February that director Matt Levatich was leaving the company, the ship not only sailed without sails, but also without a captain, into the beginning of one of the biggest pandemics.

The share price was already on a dive in December 2019 and only stopped at €14. These were very bad and dangerous times for Harley-Davidson and it lasted until March. With such an extreme price loss you quickly become a takeover candidate; normally the price was always around €33.

Jochen Zeitz received support from the shareholders

Jochen Zeitz took over the leadership position in March 2020 and was only provisionally confirmed as President and Chief Executive Officer in May. This news alone caused the share price to slowly rise again. A new captain was hired on an abandoned ship with no port, or let's put it this way, the new port was now in Thailand.

Harley-Davidson had decided to have most Harley-Davidson models assembled for the European market in Asia in order to avoid the EU's punitive tariffs. Trump was not at all enthusiastic about these plans and called for a boycott of the Harley-Davidson brand. However, it didn't help the company in advance, because Harley-Davidson itself took over the payment of the punitive tariffs for the EU market.

It will be interesting to see whether an agreement will be reached in the trade dispute between the EU and the USA under Biden. The withdrawal of US troops from Germany has now been stopped by Congress and on January 20, 2021, Joe Biden will take over the presidency from Donald Trump. Thailand cannot actually be the solution for the Harley-Davidson brand; they are by no means the only ones who have production there, but the transport route to Europe is also not cheap and takes longer. They always say time is money.

Current Harley-Davidson share price

Kolja Rebstock takes over the leadership in the EU, Middle East and Africa.

But back to Jochen Zeitz's tasks, because in the spring of 2020 he not only had the pandemic on his shoulders, but everything in Europe was also turned upside down. Brexit became a particular challenge because the headquarters for Harley-Davidson Europe is in Oxford. According to Dr. After Christian Arnezeder quit, Niels Kleinlooh from the Netherlands became the interim boss in Europe, he is actually in marketing and it looks like Kolja Rebstock this position.

He is a former manager of Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi. Kolja Rebstock will lead the Harley-Davidson business in the EU, Middle East and Africa. Kolja Rebstock will bring the necessary experience with him; he was in charge of further development and sales at Mercedes-Benz 23 years ago. A man with international experience who is now expected to move to Harley-Davidson.

But what's next for Harley-Davidson in general?

Jochen Zeitz has announced that he will remove 30% of the planned new models from the More Roads to Harley-Davidson project. In the future, the new products will only be presented in spring and some sales channels, such as South America, will be discontinued or switched to external ones. He will streamline the company and completely restructure it. Harley-Davidson website ; there is now a better overview of those responsible with more information about the respective people. The company presents itself to the outside world as more modern and open.

In Germany, Grünecker patent and attorneys are responsible for protecting Harley-Davidson's trademark rights

In the summer of 2020, Harley-Davidson commissioned a new law firm in Munich to take care of the protection of trademark rights in the future. Of course, the aim is to protect the authorized dealers, because anyone who wants to have the Bar & Shield logo hanging over their workshop has to pay for it. It seems obvious that a seller would be warned if someone produces or sells Harley saddlebags with the brand's trademarks, but is not an authorized dealer and others have to pay license fees for them.

The value in dispute is usually €500,000, and it's not just about bags, but also naming rights. Harley-Davidson will clean up in various areas, especially where they need to protect their dealers and in the areas where they want to reposition themselves.

There will be changes in the areas of financing, travel, parts and accessories. Harley-Davidson will work more on customer loyalty, including pushing the Harley-Davidson credit card, which is currently processed through Santander Bank. It is not yet known to what extent anything will change there, but Harley-Davidson wants to become the most sought-after motorcycle brand in the world and be even more connected to the customer.

And you can achieve this if you offer the customer everything as a group, because travel is also part of it. Harley-Davidson Authorized Tours have been around for years , but there are many free riders in this area and anyone who carelessly offers a Harley-Davidson trip can expect to receive mail from the new lawyer if they are not one of the authorized ones belongs to organizers. In the future, website operators and workshops would be well advised not to use protected word trademarks for their domains or offers, as this could be expensive.

There are fewer discounts and promotions

There will be fewer actions, it sounds as if Harley-Davidson wants to focus more on the CVO concept. At the top of the list is the focus on maintaining the value of the respective products, which could be achieved through individual models ex works, which is for actually sounds good and interesting to the customer.

Focusing on 50 markets in North America, Europe and parts of Asia/Pacific

That pretty much says it all, Harley-Davidson will be shifting some resources to increase efficiency. This could particularly affect models like the Street 750. In short, anything that doesn't work will be thrown out; a real look at the numbers will mean the end for stationary models. LiveWire, , in the long term from this perspective . This is not necessarily a must-have for current customers.

The Pan America gets a high priority

The Pan America has become a very high priority for Harley-Davidson; for the first time, Harley-Davidson even placed advertising on RTL during prime time. We're breaking new ground here, which certainly can't do any harm.

You have to give it to Jochen Zeitz; when he took over as manager, he stabilized the brand's share price. Since then the price has been back in the range of 29 to 34 euros. In the end, it's not just about satisfied customers, but also about satisfied shareholders, otherwise the lights will go out quickly and none of us want that!

Text Harleysite January 5th, 2021