Indian Motorcycle, like Harley-Davidson, is not going through its best moment. It is a practically irrefutable fact that both brands are not performing as they should in some aspects. Mainly, the corporate one, as has been demonstrated in the latest business moves that both Yankee firms have made.
Focusing on the first of them, a recent interview with Spencer Towill Director of mergers and acquisitions at Carolwood LP, the investment fund that recently acquired the majority of the stake in Indian Motorcycle, does not make it very clear what the future plans are, although he did emphasize an aspect that seems to have become relevant for the company: the merchandising.
Indian Motorcycle and its shortcomings
If we look back to observe the evolution of Indian Motorcycle, at a global level, within the two-wheeled sector, we come across evidence that makes it very clear what are the main challenges that the brand faces in the coming years. But also the shortcomings that have become more evident within the American firm for some time now.
At the beginning of last year 2024 we published a truly revealing piece of news: “Indian managed to turn a profit for the first time in 2023 since it belongs to Polaris.” Let us remember that the Canadian company had acquired the Yankee brand 12 years ago, in 2011. Perhaps more than one still wonders why it was sold to Carolwood LP, but here we have a truly illuminating fact.
That is why it is at least shocking that the new owners of Indian explain that their short and medium-term commercial policy involves expanding the merchandising business. At this point, one wonders when, for example, a range of access will arrive that attracts a greater number of potential customers, something that the competition’s bosses should also be thinking about.
Currently, any “chopper” who wants to mount his buttocks on an Indian will have to pay at least 12,890 euros. This is the rate from which the Scout Sixty Bobber starts in its version for the A2 license. Price, on the other hand, is truly far from what many fans want or can pay for a mount with these characteristics. That’s not counting the arsenal of Chinese motorcycles that have already landed in the segment and those that are yet to arrive.
Therefore, Indian Motorcycle must seriously think about expanding its range at the lower end of it. Selling t-shirts and jackets is fine, but it does not solve the basic problem that the company currently suffers from. Let’s hope that the commercial expertise of its new owners ends up elucidating what the real priorities are in this complicated moment in the two-wheeled sector.
