Screw it, let’s exit

Just when dealers thought that the arrival of the Festive season would bring with it a new hope of revival, washing away their pandemic blues, the news of Harley Davidson Motor Company “discontinuing its sales and manufacturing operations in India” sent shock waves through them. Now, even customers are clueless about their fate, and the road ahead seems rocky as they weigh their options whether to sell, cancel their bookings and/or hunt for alternate service arrangements.  Though a relatively small premium motorcycle player in India, Harley Davidson was a big ticket buy with each bike costing anywhere between INR 5 to INR 53 Lakhs. Setting up a Harley Davidson dealership in the country was no less than an INR 5 to INR 8 Crore (around US$ 50-80 million) investment and “the brand’s sudden exit from Indian market will make their investment go down the drain,” says Vinkesh Gulati, President, FADA (Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations of India).  He goes on to say that the company had allotted Letter of Intent (LoI) to a few new dealers as recently as January this year and some of the dealers had started setting up their dealerships which is still midway. “We have dealerships in places such as