(Image source from: Firstpost.com)

The company is closing its manufacturing facility in Bawal, Haryana, and the sales office in Gurgaon.

American bike manufacturer Harley Davidson on Thursday announced that it is closing its manufacturing and sales business in India.

As a part of its closing process, the company will first close its Bawal facility where the manufacturing of the bikes takes place and will then close the sales office in Gurgaon.

The company has released a statement saying that it would update its customers in India about future support.

However, Harley Davidson said that the company’s dealer will continue to serve the customers through the contract term.

The American company refers to the term the Re-wire to describe its restructuring actions related to its employees and other services provided by the company.

According to the sources, the company will tie up with an Indian company to continue its business in the country.

The Hard wire will be the new strategic plan by the company for the years 2021 to 2025 and this strategy would be aimed at building the desirability for the company’s products and services.

In a separate statement, the American firm said that in between August to September 2020, the company has approved several additional restructuring actions to optimize its global dealer network, exiting from certain international markets and ending its sales and manufacturing business in India.

The Indian discontinuation of the company’s sales and business units will lead to the unemployment of 2000 people.

As a result, the company expects to incur restructuring expenses of around 75 million in 2020 of which 80 percent would be cash expenditures to the ones who have lost their jobs due to the discontinuation of operations by the company.

The termination benefits for these employees include USD 3 million to USD 5 million, according to the company.

Meanwhile, FADA President, Vinkesh Gulati said that India’s capital would go down with the closure of every single brand.

Automobile dealer FADA on Friday said that the closure of business units of Harley Davidson would lead to job losses of at least 2000 people in the country.

Along with the job losses, the company’s closure would also lead to a loss of up to Rs. 130 crore to the company’s dealer partners in the country.

According to sources, Harley Davidson has not yet informed its dealer partners about the closure of its operations in India.

FADA also mentioned that the customers of Harley Davidson will not receive hassle-free service from now on, which will lead to the harassment of dealer partners in India by the customers.

Reportedly, Harley Davidson is the fourth automobile brand to close its operations for the last three years in India.

- By Gayatri Yellayi