LiveWire moving operations to Milwaukee
According to recent reports, LiveWire will move all operations of its electric motorcycle to parent company Harley’s hometown of Milwaukee. The LiveWire team will be relocated to the historic Juneau Avenue site, which has been mostly vacant since the pandemic.
LiveWire will be moving staff from its Mountain View, California laboratory to the Juneau Avenue site, according to reports.
“We expect the consolidation of our operations in Milwaukee at Harley-Davidson’s historic headquarters at Juneau Avenue to bring synergies and efficiencies, as well as a closer connection to our heritage,” Karim Donnez, LiveWire CEO, said in a statement.
Motorcycle production at Juneau Avenue ceased in 1973, and the buildings were converted to serve as an expanded corporate headquarters. In 1994, they were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Relocating the California lab would reduce LiveWire’s costs, Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz says. The electric motorcycle spin-off brand’s revenue fell 39 percent in Q1, even though it sold more bikes this year.
Zietz says it will cut about 10 percent of the headcount and 15 percent of the cost related to employees. LiveWire has about 230 employees in the U.S., according to an SEC filing last year.
The move should reduce operating losses by about $10 million this year. LiveWire sold 117 bikes in the first quarter of 2024, up from 63 in the same period of 2023. Still, operating losses were $29 million.
The company still expects to sell 1,000 to 1,500 motorcycles this year. It projects annual losses of $105 million to $115 million, up from previous estimates of between $115 million and $125 million.
Sources: WPR.org, Milwaukee Business Journal
