As the chips continue to fall on KTM's situation, it's staggering just how much money the company spent on expansion over the last few years. And how much that expansion has bitten them in the ass right now, as it lays off workers, slashes sitting inventory, cancels race programs, and cuts its global footprint.
For instance, KTM recently purchased a foundry within Austria, only to close it four months into its ownership. What, if anything, was the point of that?
But in KTM's most recent investor relations presentation, something that's supposed to give would-be and current investors a glimpse behind the curtain and assauge fears over its financial situation, which is dire at best, one statement stood out to the writers at RideApart. And that's just how many dealerships the company has worldwide.
Now, I get that KTM is a large company, encompassing KTM, GasGas, Husqvarna, and for the moment, MV Agusta. And that the world is a big place, and most dealerships selling those four makes are likely part of larger dealer networks that sell other makes, too. But when I saw that KTM counted 4,760 dealerships in its portfolio, I couldn't quite believe it. For comparision, Harley-Davidson, one of the biggest motorcycle manufacturers on the planet, and likely the most well-known, only has around 1,400.
No wonder KTM is $3 billion with a "B" in debt.
KTM breaks down its footprint as follows. It has a total of 4,760 dealerships worldwide. Of those, 1,940 are in Europe, 990 in the United States, and 1,830 are scattered throughout the rest of the world. And for those playing at home in the US, while 990 dealerships doesn't sound like a lot to cover the whole United States, compare KTM's stateside footprint to Harley's 660 US dealerships.
So not only does KTM have more dealerships worldwide than Harley, it has more US-based dealerships than Harley, which is just mind-blowing.
Now, again, I will say that most of the KTM dealerships also include the rest of the company's makes, including GasGas, Husky, and MV. Those dealerships, in my experience, also include other brands of powersports, including stuff like Can-Am and Polaris. So these aren't all dedicated KTM dealerships. Still, KTM space usually comes at a premium and nothing but KTMs are allowed in those spaces, with dealerships investing in marketing and customer-facing displays. So it's not like there isn't a larger-than-average footprint.
And for further comparison, Kawasaki has 1,100 dealerships worldwide and BMW has 4,400 (but is actually selling a ton of motorcycles).
As for what happens next with KTM, well, that's anyone's guess, but the company and its creditors, as well as its potential saviors, will meet later this month to decide the brand's future. But I'd bet dollars to donuts that these dealership numbers get slashed in the next few months, cause this is a lot of real estate to look after, and the brand probably doesn't need that many in its portfolio.
