Arctic Cat announces layoffs, production pause
A letter from Textron’s Arctic Cat division to its dealers (now widely circulated to media members) has sent a shock wave through the snowmobile and powersports markets, according to PSB sister publication Snowgoer.
In a communication sent to dealers on Wednesday, November 13, the company says it has “initiated workforce reductions across our powersports business.”
The Arctic Cat letter further states that “these actions include eliminating numerous positions across our business. In addition, we will pause production at our Thief River Falls [Minnesota] facility after production of our model year 2025 snowmobile lineup is completed.”
However, the letter adds that Arctic Cat plans to restart production next year. “We expect to resume production in Q1 2025.” It further stresses that it is not shutting down for good and will remain open to service its dealers and customers. “Our sales organization, customer service teams, aftermarket distribution centers, and other functions are ready to assist you and your customers.”
Cat Context
The letter touched off all sorts of wild speculation online, according to the Snowgoer report.
The move may not be as shocking in the context of other news, both at Arctic Cat and in the larger powersports market.
Rumors have circulated for months that Arctic Cat wasn’t planning to produce any model year 2025 ATV or UTV products. When Snowgoer ran that rumor past a longtime Arctic Cat employee immediately after Hay Days, he stated that there is enough ATV/UTV inventory at dealerships right now – from Arctic Cat and other brands – that production would be slowing down.
“By the time we actually release our next offroad lineup, we can probably just label them 2026s,” according to SG, which added that Textron already laid off some ATV/UTV offroad engineers over the spring and summer.
The fact that the company has completed the 2025 snowmobile build and is pledging to restart production in the first quarter is somewhat encouraging. But that doesn’t reduce the pain for those whose jobs are being eliminated.
OF course this is going to happen Textron SINGLE HANDEDLY IS DESTROYING THIS COMPANY ! YES I AM YELLING !they start with changing its name to Textron offroad then change all the models to crap and only making a600 ATV that is the biggest they make now Polaris, Yamaha, BRP CAN NOT KEEP UP WITH RODUCTION CAUSE THEY HAVE GAINED ALOT OF ARCTIC CAT BUYERS TEXTRON IS THE WORST COMPANY TOO BUY ARCTIC CAT AND I WORK FOR TEXTRON !