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/801507
INTERVIEW PRESIDENT OF MOTORCYCLES AT POLARIS INDUSTRIES INC., STEVE MENNETO P114 These new Indian products have been marketed, until now, alongside the existing lineup of Victory models from the brand with which Polaris entered the motorcycle business in kicking off production in July 1998, and which the company had specifi- cally declared it would continue manufacturing to provide a more youthful, performance-focused alternative to Indian, with more modern styling. But on January 9 this year, the shocking news came that the Polaris Board had decided to shut down Victory after almost 19 years in the market- place—a decision that came just two months after a full array of 2017 Victory models had been displayed on the Polaris stand at the EICMA Show in Milan. Steve Menneto has a unique understanding of the powersports industry from both sides of the marketplace, having begun his business life as a Polaris dealer in New York, before crossing over to join the company in 1997 as a dis- trict sales manager, in due course becoming director of sales for the Polaris Motorcycle division. He assumed overall responsibility for Victory Motorcycles in May 2009, and then after Polaris purchased Indian in April 2011 from British en- trepreneur Stephen Julius's Stel- lican Corp., was duly promoted to his current position as President of Motorcycles for Polaris. He has thus overseen running in tandem, until now, the Victory and Indian Motorcycle brands constituting the Polaris motorcycle division, whose revenue is forecast to grow to $1 billion in the next five years, up from $708.5 million in 2016. Who better to ask about the demise of Victory—as well as his plans for Indian's future, which this year have included bringing what was once America's most famous competition brand back to the racetrack. "There are absolutely no restrictions on what kind of motorcycle we can make in the future with an Indian badge on it, and we plan to take full advantage of that freedom to produce a range of innovative products that will be fun to ride…" Steve, why has Polaris shut down Victory, and then did you take that decision? The Polaris Board began a discussion last year about where our motorcycle division was going in the next five years, and how we were going to move forward with two brands in a highly competi- tive global marketplace. As part of that, I was challenged to put together a 5-10 year plan for Vic- tory, which had lost well over a hundred million dollars thus far in its 18 years of existence. When we put all the numbers together, it just came down to where Victory was going to have some years of mar- ginal profitability, but in totality was going to continue to lose money over the coming years. This was because of the considerable engi- Victory lost over $100 million in building more than 125,000 motorcycles in the past 18 years since its July 1998 start of production, but the Polaris business as a whole has flourished.