Bruce Rossmeyer's Daytona H-D and Destination Daytona have been sold to Teddy Morse of the Ed Morse Automotive Group after being in business for 28 years. The dealership will operate under the name Teddy Morse's Daytona H-D, along with the Main Street location. Destination Daytona will continue to operate with its existing tenants, the Clarion Inn Ormond Beach, the Pavilion, and Saints and Sinners Pub. "Our kids continued Bruce's dream after his death and I am very proud of them," said principal owner Sandy Rossmeyer. "I am also extremely pleased that we are selling to a buyer who knew Bruce and that Mr. Morse is thrilled to carry on the Daytona H-D legacy." The Ed Morse Automotive Group recently purchased three Harley dealerships in Texas. New Smyrna H-D has been closed permanently.
Back in the summer, Capital World Investors (Capital Group, Los Angeles) filed an SEC 13G, disclosing that it had become the largest single shareholder in Polaris Industries - building up a 10.1% stake. Capital Group is one of the majors with some $2 trillion in assets under management.
Andrews Products has celebrated its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1972 by John Andrews, the company has been engineering and manufacturing parts for race cars and motorcycles worldwide for 50 years. Started in his kitchen, John's first products were transmission gears. It all started with the 2.44 ratio 1st gear for the venerable H-D 4-speed. From that, on to the close ratio 3rd gear set that made the aging 4-speed transmission a true close ratio smooth shifting box. Andrews was the first company in the motorcycle industry to incorporate CNC cam grinder technology in its manufacturing process and says that it continues the trend with additional leading-edge equipment every year.
There was more market consolidation with news in August of a H-D store shake-up in the Pittsburgh area. Following the consolidation of the Gatto family and several other dealership interests in the West Mifflin area (south of Pittsburgh earlier this year), Tarentum, Pennsylvania based Gatto Harley-Davidson store has closed. It has been merged with the Three Rivers Harley-Davidson facility that the family has owned since 2007 (at nearby Glenshaw, PA). A major remodel and mega store expansion is planned for the Glenshaw Shaler facility. Gatto Cycle Shop, a used motorcycle and powersports outlet in Tarentum, remains in the ownership of the Gatto family and unaffected by the changes.
Two upstate New York dealerships in Utica have effectively been merged as market consolidation continues apace. Due to the retirement of DDS Motor Sports owner Sam Girmonde, the store has been acquired by Powersports of Utica owner Joe Carbone and folded into the Carbone family's Harley-Davidson of Utica - adding BRP, Kawasaki, Yamaha and CFMoto to the H-D site.
Bike & Business reports that Susanne and Michael Scholz of SMS Westpoint at Augsburg, Germany, have given up their H-D franchise. In an open letter to their customers, they explained that in 2019 they were told by the then H-D management in Germany that they had to double their sales over the next five years. The couple had opened a massive extension in early 2019, so they were confident they could do so. However, when contraction became the new expansion in February 2020 (just before Covid), like all dealers, they were told that H-D production would halve. Citing the poor parts and motorcycle delivery situation at Harley in Europe, they therefore decided to try to recoup the investment they'd made by taking on additional brand franchises. When they took on Triumph in the new space, adjacent to but physically and administratively separate to their H-D sales and in a manner that did not compromise their dealer agreement, or so they thought, the inevitable happened. Effective from January 2023, the Scholz's will instead focus on Triumph and Honda only. So much for institutional memory!
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com