Indian's New Private Equity Owners Want To Run The Harley-davidson Playbook

Indian

Private equity patient Carolwood Capital bought Indian retired from nether Polaris last month. Private equity deals almost invariably termination nan companies involved, but Carolwood really wants to show you it genuinely has Indian's champion interests astatine bosom — astatine least, that's what Spencer Towill, caput of mergers and acquisitions astatine Carolwood and designer of nan Indian deal, went connected Bloomberg to opportunity aft nan buyout. But moreover if Carolwood does want to tally Indian profitably successful nan agelong term, immoderate of what Towill said connected nan telephone is concerning for nan company's future. 

RideApart wrote up Towill's quality connected Bloomberg, pinch a peculiar attraction towards his comments astir Indian taking a Harley-Davidson style dive into merchandising. That's decidedly concerning, but it's besides not a immense rumor — plentifulness of manufacturers waste branded gear, either connected their ain aliases successful collaboration pinch noted moto gearmakers, and we ne'er rag connected Honda for releasing Africa Twin-branded Alpinestars jackets. No, nan worse rumor pinch Carolwood's return is how else it plans to ape Harley. 

Indian

In speech pinch Bloomberg, Towill said:

Bringing successful Mike Kennedy, who's going to beryllium nan caller CEO of Indian, was a captious portion of this woody for us. Mike is simply a titan of nan motorcycle manufacture successful our opinion, and again we're humble capable to understand that we are not experts successful nan motorcycle space, and truthful having him arsenic portion of our squad makes america incredibly excited. He's been successful nan motorcycle business for 30 years, he was astatine Harley Davidson 26 of those 30 years. He surely knows their playbook well, and truthful we're highly excited to person him arsenic our caller leader.

Mike Kennedy joined Harley-Davidson successful 1998 and near nan marque successful 2017, interrupted only by a two-year stint astatine BRP. That intends he worked location done nan heyday of nan early-aughts cruiser craze, nan heights of "American Chopper" enthusiasm, and saw some nan opening and nan extremity of nan Dyna. He witnessed nan nonaccomplishment of nan XR1200, and nan cafe craze that it ne'er sewage to return a wound retired of. There's a batch to study from there. 

But Harley's playbook, particularly successful caller years, has mostly been more astir enriching shareholders than really trading bikes. It lost the 1 CEO that intended to broaden nan brand and it won't waste its astir entry-level bike, but nan institution is still buying backmost shares — these aren't bully financial moves for anyone but nan owners. If that's nan playbook that Carolwood wants Kennedy to run, it's 1 that'll beryllium awesome for nan backstage equity patient but unspeakable for nan existent motorcycle brand. If I had to conjecture which 1 Carolwood cares much about, it wouldn't beryllium difficult to pick.