Is this the beginning of the end for Indian motorcycles?

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Polaris sold Indian motorcycles to an equity firm? How can this possibly end well for Indian? They say they plan on bringing in a couple of experienced motorcycle guys to run the show, but I have my doubts. 😢

https://www.motorcycle.com/bikes/ne...old-to-private-equity-firm-carolwood-44651593

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Los Angeles-based Carolwood was founded in 2014 as a real estate and private equity firm by Andrew Shanfeld and Adam Rubin. The company currently invests in a number of restaurant chains, a real estate-focused media company, and a sports media company, plus several real estate properties. What it doesn’t have is much of a history in powersports, or any manufacturing industries.
 
It usually is a downward spiraling turn but not so sure in this case Not knowing the numbers in the books and so.
Indian is a brand that is well known
I dont have much experience on them This summer i talked to a Owner .It was a fairly new 3 years or so He said he had a electronic engine warning light coming on.
It was the fueling giving problems Disappearing And coming back
I asked cant it be remapped .He said it can but at $ 800 or so at the dealer ( Not sure if it was that exact number ) .He said I dont want to pay that for an almost new machine.

HD has not succeed entirely .. Being to expensive .. And not all customers are happy. It has become a managers businesspersons machine and fine .. But I feel they are not getting it right currently

So I can see that Indian with a new leadership can make things happen . Perhaps there is a slot American bike between HD and Asian bikes

Strange firm though getting into this .. But cautiously optimistic .. Fresh Ideas .. it rarely helps .but there is a plan here.
Maybe there are values In buildings and Brands assets. Who knows
Looked on their website Young looking men . Not the usual types it seems .
 
I agree that this group doesn't seem to have the correct pedigree, but having said that, there are usually only a couple of reasons that these companies go thru an LBO. One is to break them up and sell most or all of the pieces for more than the whole. But there's nothing here to break-up really. The 2nd is that the company was undervalued, a good buy, and a good fixer-upper candidate.

Let's hope it's the latter, they get an experienced motorcycle team and make it better. And not go down the Victory trail...
 
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The article I linked to said that Indian just posted its first profitable year in 2023, so it sounded like they were on their way to being a solid company. I’ve had the opportunity to ride Indians at a couple of different factory demo day events , the first time , I rode the bare ones Indian Chieftain, it was a very nice looking but oh so heavy bike, about the same money as a Harley but I would’ve probably gone with a Harley if I wanted a big Cruiser.

But the bike I really liked was the Scout! It was surprisingly nimble and easy to ride and has that 100 HP motor that really shines! It’s an excellent bike!
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Honestly with the way bike prices are I'm very unlikely to buy a brand new bike any time soon. And if I'm going to spend $20k+ for a cruiser I'll get a goldwing. Despite their size all the weight is low and they are surprisingly nimble. Plus outside of special models the goldwing will stomp a harley or a lot of indians. If I wanted a heavy "muscle" cruiser I'd look at a rocket 3. The FTR from indian looks nice, but again it's more than I'm willing to spend on an extra.
 
Its been a long time said:
Not a chance. It's owned by the Bloor family. I can't see them selling out.
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So Polaris made money one year out of how many? Throw in Victory to the equation its gotta be 25 years of "trying".
Polaris is charged with making money for the shareholders. This sale makes all the sense in the world to boost earnings. Their core business is off road ATV's & SXS utility vehicles, better to focus on what makes you money. Hundreds of Polaris employees go with the sale. Hope Indian has some smaller CC entry and adventure bikes in the pipe.

I heard the hedge fund that bought Indian holds on to their acquisitions and hired a CEO/COO who ran the Ride-Now dealerships and has other bike industry experience.
He may not be a Willie G, but if he can help the dealers make money at a volume that will pay their mighty Taj mahal's overhead....maybe it will work!?

Changing demographics and rising costs make this a perilous time in the motocycle industry - duh!
 
Well he's not the former CEO of Puma.
He might have some enthusiasm for the motorcycle business was my point.

I'm a ma & pa shop kinda guy, so I get ya about those big mega stores.
 
It is a tough situation for Indian. Make no mistake, LBO (if that is how Indian was acquired) means that most of the money for the aquisition has been borrowed and Indian is now saddled with debt incurred to buy it which it has to make payments on. This is the money that could be going into developing their business, but will not be. The future depends now on how well the buyer did their math on business development and the efficiencies that they can implement to repay the debt and make money for the business and themselves. In these transactions, the seller wants to paint an ambitious picture to maximize the return for themselves. The buyer has to do their own math to not overpay. If something happens to the business and sales/profitability are not there, even temporarily, the debt payments still have to be made and then cost cutting begins, which can be a downward spiral. Not all Private Equity aquisitions turn out bad for acquired companies, just look at Avago.
 
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dave_a said:
So Polaris made money one year out of how many? Throw in Victory to the equation its gotta be 25 years of "trying".
Polaris is charged with making money for the shareholders. This sale makes all the sense in the world to boost earnings. Their core business is off road ATV's & SXS utility vehicles, better to focus on what makes you money. Hundreds of Polaris employees go with the sale. Hope Indian has some smaller CC entry and adventure bikes in the pipe.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Polaris also sells a ton of snowmobiles and personal watercraft. The big bore, high dollar cruiser market has been shrinking year after year, something Harley has been struggling to deal with. Adventure bikes , ATV’s and sport bikes seem to be the primary market now. Most of the Japanese manufacturers have all but discontinued their cruiser lineup with only a few models left.
Wagner73 said:
I do business with a Ride Now near me...that doesn't necessarily recommend him.
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I’ve bought two new bikes from them and can’t complain about the experience. They pretty much own the market here in metro Phoenix for all the Japanese bikes.
 
I'm glad it works in some cases. For me they're okay for some parts and accessories. For example tires... their prices are a little high but with that comes no cost mounting/ balancing, so I'm happy to take rims to them to change out tires.

Bikes are a different story. I looked at a used Yamaha Tracer 900 there, but after they got thru with all their markups, etc., I bought a similar but lower mile bike from a dealer in WI that ended up $2K less including shipping.

I was also interested in a new Triumph 660 in ~2022 - and as far as I can tell they do this same thing with all their bikes i.e. Hondas, Suzukis, Triumphs, Yamahas - the price they show on the tag as "Our Price" is list price, but that's not really their price. Instead, once you get to actual numbers, the final price is inflated by all sorts of add-on bs like tech set-up in their service department, etc. Bottom line, the price is always $1000-$2000 more, exclusive of tax, title and so on. It's eye-opening.
 
Wagner73 said:
I'm glad it works in some cases. For me they're okay for some parts and accessories. For example tires... their prices are a little high but with that comes no cost mounting/ balancing, so I'm happy to take rims to them to change out tires.

Bikes are a different story. I looked at a used Yamaha Tracer 900 there, but after they got thru with all their markups, etc., I bought a similar but lower mile bike from a dealer in WI that ended up $2K less including shipping.

I was also interested in a new Triumph 660 in ~2022 - and as far as I can tell they do this same thing with all their bikes i.e. Hondas, Suzukis, Triumphs, Yamahas - the price they show on the tag as "Our Price" is list price, but that's not really their price. Instead, once you get to actual numbers, the final price is inflated by all sorts of add-on bs like tech set-up in their service department, etc. Bottom line, the price is always $1000-$2000 more, exclusive of tax, title and so on. It's eye-opening.
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Sounds like a dealer near me. Every single bike on the floor has an aftermarket exhaust, different levers, maybe mirrors etc. So a drz 400sm was $3k over list before adding setup and freight. That was pretty consistant on every bike there.
 
I owned two Victory Kingpins when they (Polaris) dropped the line. Value dropped on both of those bikes. At that point I said I would defiantly not buy an Indian as Polaris could drop that line in an instant also. Maybe selling the brand will work but I would still not consider an Indian. I will stick with My Yamaha and Kawasaki brands
 

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