Jochen Zeitz has found a new job with the motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson. The former Puma boss and manager of the luxury company Kering wants to polish them up with e-motorcycles, among other things.
Harley-Davidson is getting a new image: For around a year, the German manager Jochen Seitz has been working on the new look for the cult brand’s high-priced, high-margin motorcycles. From Milwaukee in the US state of Wisconsin all over the world Zeitz wants to sell the heavy machines for freedom-loving bikers. Zeitz, once celebrated as the youngest CEO of a German listed company at Puma at the age of 30, had given the dusty sporting goods manufacturer a new image in record time after taking office. Business success made Puma a global provider of lifestyle products and quickly returned to the black. The share price rose meteoric after Zeitz took office in 1993.
Sustainability as a focus
At the later parent company of Puma, the French luxury goods group Kering, Zeitz, as “Chief Sustainability Manager”, trimmed the company more towards sustainability. Zeitz, who runs a farm with a luxury hotel in Kenya, had already set up a foundation that deals with environmental protection, fair trade and the dialogue between cultures. Zeitz had actually only temporarily occupied the executive chair at Harley-Davidson last spring. In May 2020, in the midst of the beginning pandemic, he then took over the post of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company for an unlimited period. Zeitz is the first non-American to hold a top post in the company’s 118-year history.
Republicans instead of millennials
Zeitz is facing a completely new challenge at the motorcycle manufacturer: On the one hand, its typical clientele is getting on in the truest sense of the word. According to a study by the major Swiss bank UBS, the company’s usual customers are over 50 years old, predominantly male and, at least in the USA, politically part of the Republican camp. The important group of buyers, the “millennials”, is currently not very interested in the heavy machinery. After taking office, Zeitz quickly prescribed a five-year program for the company, which aims to correct the classic direction of Harley-Davidson without scaring off regular customers – which is typical for the manager.
Hard conversion with “hardwire”
The “Hardwire” baptized program is intended to redefine motorcycling in terms of its image. Zeitz wants to put the experience of nature in the foreground when driving the heavy Harleys. He wants to move the high-margin bestsellers into the foreground of sales. But also savings in the company are part of Zeitz’s conversion program. Since taking office, he has cut costs massively and laid off around 14 percent of the workforce. The LiveWire e-motorcycle is also intended to address a wealthy customer group who attach greater importance to sustainability. However, she also has to accept prices starting at $ 30,000. This, together with the still short range of the e-bolide of 120 to 150 kilometers, make the product appear more like a statement than a sales driver.
Touring bikes boost profits
But Jochen Zeitz managed to turn the throttle at Harley-Davidson in the direction of growth and profitability; this is shown by the current business figures that the company presented on Monday. The concentration on high-margin touring two-wheelers, together with the cost savings, resulted in a ten percent jump in sales to around 1.4 billion dollars in the first quarter. Profits even climbed from $ 70 million to $ 259 million. And for the current financial year, the company expects an increase in sales of 30 to 35 percent, the forecast has thus been revised upwards significantly. But the new boss will not lack challenges in the coming months, even outside of the actual business. On Monday Zeitz announced that it would take legal action against higher EU tariffs. As of June, import duties on his company’s motorcycles would rise from 31 percent to 56 percent. “This is an unprecedented situation and underscores the very real damage of an escalating trade war,” Zeitz said.
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