Big Layoffs Are Coming To Harley-Davidson As New CEO Looks To Right The Ship

Harley-Davidson's less than impressive 2025 financial report, released last this week, indicates that the company sold fewer bikes, saw lower revenues and decreased income versus the already quite poor performance it saw in 2024. Despite selling around 124,500 motorcycles in 2025 the bar and shield company reported operating income of around $387 million against nearly $4.5 billion in revenue. In spite of all the bad news, the company's new CEO Artie Starrs, who took over the position on October 1 last year, told investors this week that he was "confident there's a clear path to put Harley-Davidson back on the right trajectory." According to reports from RideApart and the Milwaukee Business Journal, that path involves some substantial layoffs. 

"We are conducting a rigorous, end-to-end review of our cost base and operating expenses, supported by third-party specialists. Our current corporate overhead, manufacturing capacity and overall operating expenses are built for materially higher volumes than today's demand, and we will be addressing this mismatch head-on," Starrs indicated on the call. That makes a lot of sense as Harley production peaked about twenty years ago, when it was regularly shipping over 300,000 motorcycles annually. 

Milwaukee Business Journal followed up on Starrs' plan after the earnings call to see whether the local community should expect its members to begin losing their jobs. A H-D spokesperson confirmed to MBJ that some of the company's cost reductions "will be in headcount reduction." A spokesperson for the local steelworkers union also told the paper that they were aware of the impending layoffs, though not all of the workers given walking papers will be blue collar. 

It's no secret that Harley-Davidson hasn't really been on fire lately. The company sells large and expensive motorcycles aimed mostly at the mid-life American working middle class. That's a tough demographic to reach in an era with rampant inflation, economic difficulty, and wealth extraction by the elite. In short, it's a tough time to sell non-essential durable goods to Americans who have been squeezed for every last cent. 

This has been Harley's problem for over a decade, as the world sees economic dips, so too does Harley. It hasn't really been smooth sailing for The Motor Company since the 2008 housing crisis, and it seems every year gets just a little worse. The company has managed to stick it out for this long because it has its own finance arm that still turns a profit. Even if the bikes end up selling at a net loss, they can make it up on the back end with financing, licensing deals, and merchandise. It is still one of the most recognizable brands in the world, of course. 

In addition to staff, I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see Harley cut LiveWire loose before too long. I absolutely love my LiveWire, but the company has never been profitable for Harley-Davidson, Inc. The electric motorcycle manufacturer finished the year with 653 bikes shipped after dropping prices significantly across the board, and lost around $75 million. Despite shipping 7% more bikes than it did in 2024, LiveWire's revenue dropped by 3%. 

I hope H-D can turn things around under the new CEO's tenure. They make good quality motorcycles, and there's so much history there it would be a shame to lose. With Zero moving production to China, Indian selling to private equity, and Harley on the ropes, a century of American motorcycle manufacturing era is certainly fading fast.