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Harley-Davidson, Inc.
5/5/2026
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Harley-Davidson 2026 First Quarter Investor and Analyst Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Sean Collins. Thank you.
Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning. This is Sean Collins, the Director of Investor Relations at Harley-Davidson. You can access the slides supporting today's call on the internet at the Harley-Davidson Investor Relations website. As you might expect, our comments will include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters we have noted in today's earnings release and in our latest filings with the SEC. Joining me for this morning's call are Harley-Davidson Chief Executive Officer Artie Starrs and Chief Financial and Commercial Officer Jonathan Rue. With that, let me turn it over to Harley-Davidson CEO Artie Starrs.
Thank you, Sean. And good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us today for our Q1 2026 financial results, as well as an introduction to our new strategic plan which we're calling Back to the Bricks. I'll begin with an overview of our Q1 performance. Jonathan will then provide additional financial commentary before we turn to our strategy. Before I get into it, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our deeply committed and passionate Harley-Davidson employees who work tirelessly to bring Harley-Davidson alive across the world. Thank you, Team HD. Starting with retail sales, We're pleased with our performance this quarter. North America delivered a 14% increase versus the prior year, contributing to global retail sales growth of 8%. In what remains a challenging consumer environment, these results reflect the impact of the actions we've taken to drive demand and improve execution. As noted on the Q4 earnings call, dealer health and inventory levels remain a key focus for the company. During the quarter, we reduced global inventory by 22% year-over-year as we continued to prioritize dealer inventory sell-through and aligning wholesale shipments with retail demand. We'll share more detail on this in our strategy discussion. Strengthening dealer relationships has also remained a priority. We recognize the critical role our dealer network plays in the Harley-Davidson ecosystem, and we're encouraged by the renewed sense of partnership and momentum across the network. This will be an important driver as we move forward into our next chapter. During the quarter, we also formally reopened our Juneau Avenue headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affectionately referred to by our Harley-Davidson community as the BRICS, with our employees at headquarters returning to the office for the first time since 2020. Finally, We've been encouraged by the early reception to our new marketing platform, RIDE. I'll speak more about the brand platform and the value we believe it will bring as part of our strategy presentation. With that, I'll turn it over to Jonathan.
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