Attempting to gain clarity on the financial health of Indian Motorcycles is, to the say the least, challenging.
First, Indian motorcycle financials are lumped in with what is called “on-road” financials, which makes it difficult to ascertain the exact figures related to Indian motorcycle successes and failures. The use of aggregate categories limits being able to tweak the actual figures of the aggregate.
Therefore I’ve taken the statistics from Motorcycle.com, which has, to the extent possible garnered the facts from the annual report.
First, the good news. Indian Motorcycles turned a profit for the first time in 2023. “The earnings report didn’t go into specific numbers, as India’s results are lumped together with Polaris’ other on-road brands, including Slingshot, electric utility vehicle brand Goupil and European quadricycle brand Aixam.”
The report states that “Indian’s gross profit margin improved by nearly 600 basis points in the final quarter for its sixth consecutive quarter of growth of more than 250 basis points.”
Now the bad news. “Indian retail sales were down 24% in the final quarter, and down in the high teens year over year.” Oddly, Polaris claims that Indian gained in market share, but its share of the North American market saw a modest decline in the fourth quarter of around 11%.
To this writer, it would seem that the fog of the annual report, whether intentional or accidental requires clarification. I will attempt to glean the facts as the year progresses.
In order to access the annual report, go to Polaris Annual Report 2023.
https://ir.polaris.com/financial-information/quarterly-results/default.aspx
See Presentation.
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