SHOCK!!! HARLEY HONCHO BLAMES PREZ TRUMP FOR KANSAS CITY SHUT DOWN!!!



File this one under corporate double talk OR real life Kansas City consequences for international deals gone wrong.

Checkit:

KC BIZ JOURNAL: Trump's TPP pullout forced closing of 600-person Harley plant in KC

Deets:

"Harley-Davidson Inc. CEO Matt Levatich said if President Donald Trump hadn't removed the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), he wouldn't have shut down the company's Kansas City manufacturing plant. The statement was made in a telephone interview with Bloomberg that was published Tuesday. Levatich said the decision to shutter the Kansas City plant was "Plan B" after the U.S. abandoned TPP. "We would rather not make the investment in (the Thailand plant), but that's what's necessary tto access a very important market,” Levatich said of the Thailand plans. “It is a direct example of how trade policies could help this company, but we have to get on with our work to grow the business by any means possible . . ."

Read the Bloomberg blame game piece . . .

TPP Pullout Spurred Harley's `Plan B' Factory in Thailand

You decide . . .

Comments

  1. Jeez.

    The blame is really on a company that didn't keep up with the times, built products that were growing out of favor with limited market appeal.

    Not to mention a failure by management to scale the workforce and incorporate more technology.

    But I guess it's easier just to joint the chorus of complaints against Trump.

    The lazy way out, which is why they're going bankrupt.

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  2. So much winning!

    I thought the president was going to bring all of the jobs back? I guess not in KC.

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  3. 6:21 there is a market in Asia for motorcycles. They are moving where their costumers are.

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  4. Oh, there'll be a market for Harley products in the US, they'll just have to dump the 1950s "Hog" concept and produce bikes that people under 60 want to ride.

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  5. Things like this were entirely predictable and in fact, were predicted by many. I'm betting there were lots of Trump voters working in the plant and look what it got them. My wife has family who farm in western Kansas. Them and everyone they know harvest Milo which China slapped a 187% tariff on last week. My wife's uncle and cousin are Democratic farmers surrounded by a sea of red who are now getting royally fucked by Trump's policies. Pathetic thing is, those same farmers would probably vote Trump again tomorrow you know, God, guns, and gays.

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  6. It’s god, guns and girls dumbass!

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  7. The plant shut down because this is a crappy town with a crappy mayor and a crappy workforce, plain and simple

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  8. Bullshit. Levatich is playing politics and jumping on the Trump hate bandwagon. 2007 H-D made 320,000 motorcycles, last year they barely made 200,000. They don't need the KC plant and they have been working on manufacturing operations outside the U.S. for at least a decade.

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  9. It hurts him to build over seas because it will cost more to ship them here with the tariff! Got it, greedy bastard doesn’t want to pay union wages here because he could build them for less over there and make more profit!

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  10. Trump plunked his ass!

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  11. Punked! Stupid spell check

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  12. Harley sales went to shit way before trump came along

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  13. How is it Obama blamed George for 8 yrs but trumps in for 1 and a half years and everything is his fault I'm calling liberal blame bullshit

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. He's building a plant in Thailand because he can pay children slave wages while he lives in a mansion and flies around in a private jet.

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  16. ^^^^ winner winner chicken dinner!

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  17. Thought HD wanted to be the Tesla of motorcycles. Electra-glide.

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  18. Orphan of the Road4/24/18, 8:42 PM

    Harley makes more on t-shirts, mugs,and trinkets than motorcycles. How may repo units are warehoused around the country? Default rate is real high.

    Not Tailand but India where the baby Harleys are built.

    CEO is not a motorcycle person and young kids aren't meeting the nicest people on a Honda either.

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  19. Exhaust Pipes4/24/18, 9:05 PM

    What a total LIE & Fabrication, Harley sales have been down the last 5 years !!

    as reported on business news, HARLEY Davidson had a huge glut of over stock of their bikes , back in 2014/2015, as the younger generation couldn't afford them and were more interested in other type bikes.

    several Harley dealers were facing Bankruptcy as far back as 2013 due to decline sales.

    amazing the bullshit spin & narrative some Dipshit liberal reporter will attempt to spin to push their bullshit phony narrative !!

    Article from 2016 : https://www.huffingtonpost.com/yatin-khulbe/the-startling-decline-of-_b_12796210.html

    Harley-Davidson "demand has weakened" among its "aging baby-boomer customers" and "fewer millennials" are taking to motorcycling.

    LINK : http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40650307

    Article FROM 2015 : Harley-Davidson Layoffs Imminent Amidst Declining Sales : http://wuwm.com/post/harley-davidson-layoffs-imminent-amidst-declining-sales#stream/0


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  20. Exhaust Pipes4/24/18, 9:16 PM


    Article from early mid 2017

    Harley all revved up and NO Place to go :

    The famous Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker said Tuesday that dealers are "stuck with too many 2016" models that need to sell before new, improved 2017 models can take over - dealers' showroom floors.
    The "surplus reflects a sales slowing trend" that "started last May", of 2016 ~ !!!

    LINK : https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/01/31/harley-davidson-shares-down-2016-sales-dip-and-2017-flat-forecast/97276960/

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  21. exhaust pipes4/24/18, 9:21 PM

    Article as reported -

    Harley-Davidson Is Losing Its Cool

    The iconic brand of conservative boomers is suffering as bike and merchandise sales fall. Now layoffs are planned

    Article : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/saudi-aramco-to-lift-oil-trading-volume-to-6-million-barrels-day

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  22. TKC geezer hate American companies and workers, just to protect dear leader. Fuckin' fascist traitors.

    Think it's bad now, wait until Trump's trade war with the EU kicks in. Tariff are set to begin in May.

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  23. Exhaust Pipes4/24/18, 9:37 PM


    Even Harley-Davidson "Can’t Resist" the Tug of "Overseas Factories"

    But even as he praised Harley-Davidson’s all-American credentials, "the company was busily building a new plant — in Thailand" !!!!!

    Thailand ???????????

    workers accuse the company of cutting American jobs to "hire lower-paid foreign workers" !!!

    It’s a slap in the face to the U.S. workers who built an American icon,” said Robert Martinez Jr., the international president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The union represents Harley-Davidson workers at plants including one in York, Pa., where the company plans to lay off over 100 workers.

    Harley-Davidson argues that steep trade barriers in a high-growth market, not a desire to cut American jobs, "drove the move to Southeast Asia" !!!!

    Harley says the "new Thailand plant" will help it serve "more Asian riders" !!

    Mr. Akaravech’s most expensive Harley, a custom 2013 Road Glide, cost roughly - $60,000, - thanks in part to "Thailand’s high tariffs".
    In the United States, the "same model retails" for just over half that amount. (The Thailand plant would assemble lower-cost motorcycles.)

    The company opened a similar plant in Bawal, India, in 2011 to help it get around that country’s 100 percent tariff on imported motorcycles. It also assembles motorcycles at a plant in Brazil and has a wheel factory in Australia. The Thailand plant will assemble motorcycles for Asia that were previously imported from India or the United States.

    LINK : https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/harley-davidson-thailand-factory-manufacturing.html

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  24. ^^^ Trump promised this would not happen anymore.

    No more shipping jobs overseas. There will be consequences. Won't be allowed.

    Did President Pee-Tape lie to us?

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  25. Democrat greedy union slobs losing their scams in America..


    good riddance!

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  26. ^^^ Good riddance?

    To good paying manufacturing jobs?

    Why do you hate America and cheer for it's demise? Idiot.

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  27. Capitalism KC4/24/18, 10:10 PM

    I hate to break it to you, but for stockholders, the company leaving the U.S and building factories overseas is good news and increases value.

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  28. ^^^ True, but Trump promised that wasn't going to happen anymore.

    "I will bring our jobs back to the U.S., and keep our companies from leaving. Nobody else can do it."

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  29. If they build them in asia will they have big ass chrome fart cans for the win?

    MAGA!

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  30. How many motorcycles do people really need? It's not like these things are daily drivers that need to be replaced every 5-10 years. A guy can buy one and run it for 20+ years if he takes care of it. Applying automobile manufacturing principle to a motorcycle just doesn't make sense. It's also not like there's some new and improved bells and whistles that come out for motorcycles similar to cars. Bikes are a niche market item, plain and simple. Now, the guys at Orange County Choppers have the right idea, do custom orders and run lean, until you have a family disagreement and it all falls apart.

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  31. So. Much. winning. We are all going to get tired of this winning!

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  32. Blaming Trump for your out of date antiquated motorcycle ?! No wonder Harley is in trouble with leaders like this out of touch idiot.

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  33. Yup @ 10:43, that's what Trump does!

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