Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson will resume assembly of motorcycles on Monday, a little more than two weeks after announcing a shutdown.
A spokesperson confirmed the company was “starting to resume production from June 6th.”
Harley issued a statement on May 19 announcing it would suspend assembly and shipment of all non-LiveWire motorcycles for two weeks after a supplier identified “a regulatory compliance matter relating to the supplier’s component part.”
At the time, the announcement sent Harley’s stock down more than 11.5%. The stock had recovered beyond its pre-shutdown level by May 27.
In confirming the production restart, a Harley spokesperson did not address any details regarding the cause of the shutdown or if any previously produce motorcycles would need to be recalled.
The two-week period with no shipments came at a time when Harley dealers already faced limited inventory. Harley ended the first quarter with 28,000 motorcycles in dealer inventory, down from 37,000 in 2021 and 74,000 at the end of March 2019.
While the company had sought to limit inventories as part of a strategic overhaul of the company’s direction, Edel O’Sullivan, chief commercial officer, acknowledged during the company’s first quarter earnings call that “we are a little bit lighter than we would like to be today in the dealer network.”
