Harley Davidson to Shut Down the Alabama Test Facility

Soon after announcing that it has decided to discontinue the Buell product line, American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson continues to aggressively follow its cutting costs policy. The company recently revealed that it plans to close its Alabama test facility and to outsource non-core operations like small-parts stamping, sub-assembly and chrome plating of its York facility.

The Alabama facility currently performs several kinds of vehicle testing, including emissions, brake, sound, durability and automated vehicle tests.

Harley-Davidson officials did not provide a date when the facility would close, but did say that it would happen sometime next year. Whenever that happens, the direct consequence of such an action will be the elimination of about 100 jobs.

As for the York County facility, a study has been under way since May to examine whether Harley should move the operations elsewhere to save costs, the York Daily record reported. Such a move would mean that about 2,000 manufacturing employees lose their jobs.

Of course, the job cutting measures will have a strong impact in local economy, but the seriousness of these actions depend on which suppliers Harley decides to outsource to and where they are located. In a best-case scenario, if those suppliers are in the local region, they might be able to absorb some of the workers Harley would let go.

Harley Davidson’s decisions came after third quarter financial results showed that sales dropped 21.3 percent year-on-year and the net income is down 84.1 percent. Therefore, the renown American motorcycle manufacturer decided to give up on Buell, sell MV Agusta and switch the focus on their own brand.