Arctic Cat is all but dead. The corporate has shuttered its production facility in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. It is laid off nearly its entire staff. And the model’s mother or father firm, Textron Industries, which has its fingers in every thing from aviation to navy contracting, is alleged to be actively in search of patrons for the outfit.
However since late final 12 months, not a lot has been stated about what is going on on with the snowmobile model. That’s till final month when SnoWest apparently talked to a few insiders who had just a little little bit of an replace, together with that not solely does Textron have an social gathering, it has just a few events.
May we see Arctic Cat rise from the ashes? Or somewhat, from the powder? Actually, it is wanting like that could be a possibly.
When the model introduced the pause in manufacturing, in addition to its layoffs, the corporate additionally said that it was “exploring strategic options” for the model, which suggests Textron was in search of a purchaser. And in line with SnoWest, there are a number of teams.
“SnoWest has reached out to each Textron Specialty Autos (TSV) and senior workers inside Arctic Cat,” states the outlet, including, “Whereas TSV didn’t present any new data, we did get an replace from a trusted supply inside Arctic Cat.”
That replace is that whereas the corporate hasn’t but been offered, “We have been advised that TSV (Textron Specialty Autos) remains to be within the stage of receiving and reviewing proposals from potential patrons for the Arctic Cat model. Our supply confirmed that Textron has certainly obtained acquisition proposals from a number of events. No timeline was supplied on when these gives are anticipated to be reviewed or a call made.”
It is actually an fascinating replace, given the state of the market.
Snow totals have been on the decline lately, particularly within the Japanese United States the place year-over-year totals have confirmed to trigger significant drops in new and used snowmobile purchases, as well as registrations. And different manufacturers like Yamaha have utterly given up on its snowmobile program, whereas others like Taiga have gone bankrupt and then returned again. Likewise, of us like Polaris have axed the Timbersled program, and each it and Ski-Doo have supplied deep reductions on present stock. What I imply by all that is that I am shocked anybody’s given the declines we have seen.
That stated, I would like to see Arctic Cat again on the mountain as soon as extra, as in my expertise, the corporate’s sleds are top-notch and extra folks having fun with the paths and backcountry means extra folks having fun with public lands. And that is at all times good in my estimation.
I reached out to Textron Specialty Industries to see if there’s an replace since SnoWest talked to these inside the group, and I am going to replace this if and after we hear again.
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