Polaris Industries, which owns the Indian and Victory Motorcycle brands, has purchased a new paint facility in South Dakota, which was previously occupied by Lehman Trikes, prior to Lehman’s move to California.
The 51,000-square-foot facility in Spearfish, S.D., will provide additional liquid paint capacity for Indian and Victory motorcycles made in Spirit Lake, Iowa.
Polaris will employ approximately 80 people in a two-shift operation at the facility, located at 125 Industrial Drive. Production is planned to begin in Q4 2015.
Polaris is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of powersports equipment with annual 2014 sales of $4.5bn. Polaris designs, engineers, manufactures and markets innovative, high quality off-road consumer and military vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and the Polaris RANGER and RZR side-by-side vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles and on-road electric/hybrid powered vehicles.
Polaris bought the iconic Indian brand in 2011 from Stellican, a private equity company that was manufacturing bikes in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Polaris moved production to Sprit Lake, Iowa and the first all-new Indian bikes debuted at the 2013 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally as 2014 models.
For 2016, the Indian lineup has expanded to a total of six models.
Indian expansion in India
Polaris India announced earlier this month that it had opened an Indian Motorcycle dealership in Mumbai. The new dealership is the fifth for the brand in India and the company plans to bring that to a total of 12 by the end of 2016.
Located in Jogeshwari, the showroom will have on display the entire range of Indian Motorcycles, currently available in the Indian market such as the Indian Roadmaster, Indian Chief Classic, Indian Chief Vintage, Indian Chieftain, Indian Chief Dark Horse and Indian Scout.
