Polaris Ends the Race for Victory Motorcycles

Victory has been building cruisers right here in the USA for the last 18 years and Polaris has recently made the decision to close its doors. It comes as a shock to most, as there have been some recent gains for Victory. When it comes to competing with Harley-Davidson though, there’s not much of a race. Here’s what the CEO of Polaris had to say about it:"Our focus is on profitable growth, and in an environment of finite resources, this move allows us to optimize and align our resources behind both our premium, high performing Indian Motorcycle brand and our innovative Slingshot brand, enhancing our focus on accelerating the success of those brands. Ultimately this decision will propel the industry-leading product innovation that is core to our strategy while fostering long-term growth and increased shareholder value.”

This wasn’t an easy decision for the Polaris team and Board of directors. The CEO, Scott Wine added, “The experience, knowledge, infrastructure and capability we’ve built in those 18 years gave us the confidence to acquire and develop the Indian Motorcycle brand.”Let’s put this into perspective for you incase you haven’t been following the Polaris brand. Polaris acquired Indian Motorcycle in early 2011. The sales for the Victory motorcycles peaked in 2012 and has had a steady decline over the last few years. In 2015, Victory sales were only 3% total of Polaris sales. From 2011-2015 the company has lost money in the Victory brand three of the last five years. According to Polaris, the Victory brand was struggling to reach the market they needed to be profitable. For all the Victory Motorcycle owners out there, don’t worry - you’re going to be able to continue to get parts, and your warranties will be covered for at least the next 10 years. What are you going to do after that, though? Maybe buy an Indian or even go to the dark side and buy a Harley?