Arctic Cat Nationwide Workforce Reduction
- Thread starter christopher
- Start date
Yesterday, Arctic Cat (Textron) notified dealers of wide workforce reductions across all powersports businesses. We reached out to Arctic Cat and asked for more information. Here is the official statement we received:
Today, we made workforce reductions across our powersports business, including at our Thief River Falls location.
Affected employees are eligible for severance benefits, including outplacement assistance to help them transition to new opportunities. We appreciate our employees and their contributions to our company, and wish them well in their next endeavors.
Looking forward, we are excited for the snowmobile community to experience the MY2025 Arctic Cat line-up, featuring a new breed of power with the new Arctic Cat 858 engine. The Arctic Cat team stands ready to provide support and service to our loyal customers.
Today, we made workforce reductions across our powersports business, including at our Thief River Falls location.
Affected employees are eligible for severance benefits, including outplacement assistance to help them transition to new opportunities. We appreciate our employees and their contributions to our company, and wish them well in their next endeavors.
Looking forward, we are excited for the snowmobile community to experience the MY2025 Arctic Cat line-up, featuring a new breed of power with the new Arctic Cat 858 engine. The Arctic Cat team stands ready to provide support and service to our loyal customers.
Sad deal. I hope it doesn't turn into the "gone fishing" years of 1982-83.
While they haven't been on the cutting edge of sled offerings for many years, it didn't seem like they had trouble selling out of the Catalyst sleds during snowcheck the last two years. I view it as even more of an issue with their product offerings on the dirt side of the business:
-Literally the same products for years then thinning the line down to a single 600cc offering.
-No boosted sport side by side when they could have owned that market since 2012 with the original wildcat and a turbo Z1 engine from the sleds.
-50hp utility side by sides without full heated and AC cab options from the factory like their competitors have.
-Trying to sell their line in Bass Pro Shop by people that know nothing and can't service the product.
Add in poor dealer support, crappy economy, and Corporate America practices of layoffs at the end of the year to "reduce overhead costs" just to prop the stock price. It's not hard to see why this happened.
While they haven't been on the cutting edge of sled offerings for many years, it didn't seem like they had trouble selling out of the Catalyst sleds during snowcheck the last two years. I view it as even more of an issue with their product offerings on the dirt side of the business:
-Literally the same products for years then thinning the line down to a single 600cc offering.
-No boosted sport side by side when they could have owned that market since 2012 with the original wildcat and a turbo Z1 engine from the sleds.
-50hp utility side by sides without full heated and AC cab options from the factory like their competitors have.
-Trying to sell their line in Bass Pro Shop by people that know nothing and can't service the product.
Add in poor dealer support, crappy economy, and Corporate America practices of layoffs at the end of the year to "reduce overhead costs" just to prop the stock price. It's not hard to see why this happened.
Doo and Poo had big layoffs too.
It's bad news. As mentioned above, the off road offers pale in comparison to Can Am, Polaris and Kawasaki. Even though it appears the sleds may have made a big splash, it may be a little to late. A company cannot survive on sleds alone. Yamaha had numerous profitable product lines and could not make it work. Cat is not competitive in the off road line and doesn't even appear to have a need to build new off road vehicles as dealers still have too much leftover inventory. Even if the economy turns around (and I'm confident it will) Textron is not going to invest with the small profit margin Cat products provide. I hope I'm wrong, but just a few years ago, everyone was in denial about Yamaha sleds. I guess time will tell.
I'll buy it for half price!
Its a bummer, I am hoping winter finally comes. Cat needs a good year and their new products can get them there. We sell Land Pride attachments for tractors, They announced back at the end of September they were stopping production. Too many sitting at the factory. So, it is not just the recreation sector, The Ag economy is not looking good either!
Well if they have withdrawn to hopefully survive until this economy can rebound, they are a small company compared to Poo and Doo for sure! Always liked and had good times on Cat products, let’s hope we don’t end up with one less choice.
In my opinion, Arctic Cat is the ugly step child in Textrons eyes, Im sure they bought the company for the high value contracts that Cat has/had. When you look at what Bass pro sells for dirt product, its identicle to Cat but labled Textron instead.
That is part of it. We are still paying for the chinah flu buying frenzy
I heard an interesting perspective earlier. Possibly thinning the workforce to make a new acquisition more palatable?
Back to the deere theroy
However all deeres junk comes from overseas and the new admin is going to hinder that flow. They may have bowed out and cats looking elsewhere for a sale
Back to the deere theroy
However all deeres junk comes from overseas and the new admin is going to hinder that flow. They may have bowed out and cats looking elsewhere for a sale
What's really sad is that this has to happen right before the holidays. I work contract work (software engineering) and many times I have been laid off right before the holidays. Makes for a really crappy season because it's hard to find work this time of year. It usually doesn't come back around til late January or February.
In my case, I'm especially thankful that my main gig has extended me for another six months.
As for Arctic Cat, since Yamaha has been selling re-branded Arctic Cats for the past few years, I wonder why they didn't just buy Arctic Cat from Textron rather than exiting the industry? I'm sure there are lots of good reasons, but I can't help but ask.
In my case, I'm especially thankful that my main gig has extended me for another six months.
As for Arctic Cat, since Yamaha has been selling re-branded Arctic Cats for the past few years, I wonder why they didn't just buy Arctic Cat from Textron rather than exiting the industry? I'm sure there are lots of good reasons, but I can't help but ask.
They probably needed to stop offroad 6 to 9 months ago to save money from being tied up. There was a ton of inventory outside over last winter, it was visible to people who traveled the highway near the plant.
The product design and support functions reduction is going to be pretty drastic as this cut is a lot bigger than the late Jan cut. Polaris is down over 400 salaried staff this year as well (think 420 or 440), but they were massive in comparison to Arctic Cat.
Or a sale fell through leading to this.
