Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1035029
I N D I A N M OTO R C YC L E P R E S I D E N T ST E V E M E N N E TO P102 INTERVIEW Shutting down Victory was a tough call. How has that worked out for you? It's been 18 months since we announced that decision, and since then we've been trying to do everything we can to try to take care of our Victory customers. I think it's gone pretty smoothly. Having shut down one brand, would Po- laris ever be interested in acquiring another motorcycle company besides Indian, espe- cially if it was maybe in a different sector of the market? Yes, indeed we might—but in a different sector. If you look at Polaris, last year we completed the acquisition of Transamerican Auto Parts, which provided us with an immediate leadership position in a growing market, and allows us to accelerate Polaris' growth and prof- itability. And then, just now on July 2 we ac- quired Boat Holdings in the United States, which is a leading manufac- turer of pontoon boats and pleasure boats, and so forth. So as we continue to look at our corporate portfolio, we look at what's good for the customer, and what's good for our overall business strategy as we expand in the outdoor recreation industry. We don't have an acquisition strategy, but we have a business strategy, which is about fueling passion. So if there's another motorcycle brand available, which allows us to continue to fuel the passion of riders around the globe, it's an opportunity for us that we'll certainly consider. I'm not saying we're going to do anything specific as yet, but I'm also not saying we wouldn't do anything if that situation arose. So, if for example, Volkswagen decided after all to sell Ducati, would Polaris be inter- ested in acquiring it? (Smiling) I'll say no comment at this time on that, but—no, we'll leave it at that! CN over 50% in year-on-year growth in Europe. Tariffs are tough. As a business person you have to look at the whole landscape and react to changes in that. I can't change what's going on, so we'll just make the assessment on how to react to that, and take it from there. If you have this consistently increasing demand for your products, will production at Spirit Lake be able to keep up? And is it a problem getting the workforce there? It's only a small town. No, right now we employ about 800 people in our Spirit Lake facility, which measures 130,000 square feet. We just actually put on a new Experi- ence Center, and did a nice redo of the whole facil- ity and now we're starting to build up a collection of history, and people are donating stuff, and we have old bikes there, and new bikes, and FTR bikes. So not only is it our manufactur- ing facility, but now it's becoming our Indian Experience Center, as well. But yes, we have the capacity there, and we have the ability to gain the people to continue expanding. Do you feel you've achieved that expansion reasonably well without sacrificing quality? That was our biggest thing, is we knew we had to go with speed and quality, and it cost a lot to do that, but we cannot waver on quality at all. And that's at the forefront of our mind in trying to build a premium brand, we have to make sure quality is first. Now so far, you've only made twin-cylinder engines. Indian didn't really do much with singles, but they did make fours. When are we going to see an Indian Four again? Well, we indeed made Fours, and we also have singles in our history portfolio, so we're not limited in what we can do. If Indian is so successful now, just wait until this thing comes on the market.