EBR announces it too is winding down production
It seems not a month goes by when Erik Buell Racing, the fledgling brainchild of mad scientist Erik Buell, appears to hit tough times. This week EBR announced, like Victory Motorcycles at the beginning of the month, that it too would be winding down production operations this year.
It’s not the first time that EBR has come close to the end, but in a year when even deep-pockets Polaris Industries can’t keep their quirky American brand afloat, investors are hard to come by for the motorcycle industry’s nice guy, Erik Buell.
Interestingly, it could be yet another near-death experience, with the brand offering hope in their press release with the following statement: “EBR will continue to review strategic alternatives with interested investors regarding production operations.”
Is it truely the end? We’re not sure, but the signs really aren’t that promising…
The Release from EBR:
EBR Motorcycles, LLC (“EBR”) located in East Troy, Wisconsin will begin a wind down of production operations commencing next week. EBR will continue to honour warranties and provide technical and parts support to current dealers and riders who bought motorcycles manufactured by EBR. EBR will continue to review strategic alternatives with interested investors regarding production operations.
The decision was a tough one for EBR as it has been solely focused on the growth and building EBR for success. The team at EBR has worked tirelessly making every effort to build the company. There is no fault on any of the team at EBR for this decision. They and their families have our deepest gratitude for their efforts and dedication to EBR. This difficult decision was based primarily on EBR facing significant headwinds with signing new dealers, which is key to sales and growth for a new company. In addition, EBR has had limited production in 2016 and 2017 that was under goal. The combination of slow sales and industry announcements of other major OEM brands closing or cutting production only magnified the challenges faced by EBR.
The limited production of remaining 2017 and 2016 EBR motorcycles are currently available from EBR’s top dealers. For a list of top dealers, please go to www.EBR.com.
A sale of production equipment and excess parts will start in March.
