Arctic Cat is all but dead. The company has shuttered its production facility in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. It's laid off nearly its entire staff. And the brand's parent company, Textron Industries, which has its fingers in everything from aviation to military contracting, is said to be actively looking for buyers for the outfit.
But since late last year, not much has been said about what's going on with the snowmobile brand. That is until last month when SnoWest apparently talked to a couple of insiders who had a little bit of an update, including that not only does Textron have an interested party, it has a few interested parties.
Could we see Arctic Cat rise from the ashes? Or rather, from the powder? Honestly, it's looking like that might be a maybe.
When the brand announced the pause in production, as well as its layoffs, the company also stated that it was "exploring strategic alternatives" for the brand, which means Textron was looking for a buyer. And according to SnoWest, there are multiple interested groups.
"SnoWest has reached out to both Textron Specialty Vehicles (TSV) and senior staff within Arctic Cat," states the outlet, adding, "While TSV did not provide any new information, we did get an update from a trusted source within Arctic Cat."
That update is that while the company hasn't yet been sold, "We were told that TSV (Textron Specialty Vehicles) is still in the stage of receiving and reviewing proposals from potential buyers for the Arctic Cat brand. Our source confirmed that Textron has indeed received acquisition proposals from multiple interested parties. No timeline was provided on when those offers are expected to be reviewed or a decision made."
It's honestly an interesting update, given the state of the market.
Snow totals have been on the decline in recent years, especially in the Eastern United States where year-over-year totals have proven to cause significant drops in new and used snowmobile purchases, as well as registrations. And other brands like Yamaha have completely given up on its snowmobile program, while others like Taiga have gone bankrupt and then returned again. Likewise, folks like Polaris have axed the Timbersled program, and both it and Ski-Doo have offered deep discounts on existing inventory. What I mean by all this is that I'm surprised anyone's interested given the declines we've seen.
That said, I'd love to see Arctic Cat back on the mountain once more, as in my experience, the company's sleds are top-notch and more people enjoying the trails and backcountry means more people enjoying public lands. And that's always good in my estimation.
I reached out to Textron Specialty Industries to see if there's an update since SnoWest talked to those within the group, and I'll update this if and when we hear back.
