HD is Har'ly Keeping Up with Demand

The Harley-Davidson logo is displayed on a motorcycle Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 in Springfield, Ill. Harley-Davidson's third-quarter profit more than doubled as it posted its second-straight quarterly sales increase Tuesday, Oct. 18. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Harley-Davidson reports its income doubled in the third quarter, but its stock price fell today because of production problems digging into profit margins.

Huh?

I'm have not much of a business mind, so this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But The Associated Press is reporting that retail sales are skyrocketing in the U.S. But like the auto companies, most of the profit is in the high-end models — which in HD's case can run up to 30 grand.  These are the bikes the company is having trouble keeping up on.

"When the economy took a turn for the worse a few years ago, the company’s sales plunged and it embarked on a massive restructuring that shuttered plants and eliminated thousands of jobs," Bree Fowler reported today.

"The restructuring continued during the third quarter. Harley said it worked to consolidate production of more than 20 models of motorcycles on one assembly line at its York, Penn., plant and is retraining many of the plant’s workers.

"As a result, it wasn’t able to produce as many of the larger touring and custom bikes dealers needed, shifting customers to smaller, less profitable models and reducing the average amount of money made on each bike sold."

You can read more of this story here.