Bike dealers find new road in lockdown

Motorcycle dealerships in Melbourne will keep their engines ticking over during the latest lockdown.

Jay Lawrence says Harley-Davidsons are flying out the door as bored consumers spin their wheels: ‘It’s been a boom of the likes I’ve never seen.’ Picture: Aaron Francis

As Jay Lawrence, the sales and marketing manager at Morgan & Wacker Harley-Davidson in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, prepares his dealership for a six-week lockdown, he is taking it in his stride.

“We recently performed a miracle by moving this store from Brunswick to Epping, so this lockdown will give us a bit of time to catch up with ourselves and complete those little finishing items to be ready for customers when it is over,” Mr Lawrence told The Australian on Thursday.

“Even today — the first day of lockdown — we sold a motorcycle online. So it’s looking positive.”

Still, it is set to be an extended winter for many of Melbourne’s motorbike riders, as tough travel restrictions mean that few can even take advantage of the city’s near deserted freeways.

Morgan & Wacker’s parent — the ASX-listed MotorCycle Holdings — said the partial closure of six stores in Melbourne, including in Epping, will affect 100 staff.

Under the COVID restrictions that have been rolled out across metropolitan Melbourne, the stores can remain open only to fulfil contactless click-and-collect orders.

More than two-thirds of these staff are on the Jobkeeper program but won’t qualify after September due to the recovery of MotorCycle Holdings’s revenue in other states.

MotorCycle Holdings, the nation’s biggest motorbike dealer and parts wholesaler, expects that Victoria’s stage 4 lockdown will cost the company $10m in lost revenue.

But while the brakes have been hit hard in Melbourne, sales of motorbikes across the rest of the country are roaring.

MotorCycle Holdings managing director David Ahmet told The Australian that Aussies are keen to pour money into a hobby that provides entertainment when holidays are hard to arrange and a cost-effective way of getting around when public transport is a health risk.

“It’s been a boom of the likes I’ve never seen,” Mr Ahmet said.

“I’ve been in this business for 31 years, and it’s just been exceptional.”

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry figures released in July show motorcycle and ATV sales increased in the last quarter by 24.5 per cent over the same period last year — even though new car sales entered their 27th consecutive month of decline in July.

The result was driven by a strong uptick in demand for off-road vehicles, particularly four wheelers.

“Offroad sales have boomed due to the drought recovery, but road bikes have done really well during coronavirus,” said Mr Ahmet, adding that he believes his own sales have increased in line with FCAI, despite a wobbly start back when the pandemic hit in April.

“We saw a revenue dip and qualified for Jobkeeper,” Mr Ahmet said.

“We started to prepare for the worst but then the customers came out of the woodwork. They couldn’t go overseas, they couldn’t go to restaurants, so I guess they were looking for an activity to spend their disposable income on.

“So from the first of May it took off, and it’s been going gangbusters ever since … we’re starting to run out of stock because the manufacturers, who cut back activity because of the pandemic, can’t get bikes into the country fast enough — no one to my knowledge anticipated this massive increase in business.

“We expect to run into stock supply problems in a few months.”

Mr Ahmet said the company would meet its June its full-year guidance of an underlying EBITDA of $24m to $27m.

MotorCycle Holdings shares closed at $1.68 on Thursday, up 1.8 per cent.