NEW DELHI: American cult bike maker Harley-Davidson plans to open mega skills centre in India, which it calls the Harley-Davidson University, to train employees and dealership staff.
Currently, the US-based firm has three such universities in the Asia Pacific region. Indian centre will be the fourth and would be located in national capital.
“We will continue to invest in people and resources here (India). An example of that is Harley-Davidson University which we are going to open here in Delhi in next few weeks,” Harley-Davidson India and China MD Peter MacKenzie recently told PTI.
Apart from technical training, the Harley-Davidson University also offers a variety of courses ranging from management to finance and branding.
The upcoming entity would offer both technical and non- technical training to its employees and dealership staff from across the country, he added.
“Our university caters only to the Harley-Davidson community,” MacKenzie said.
When asked what kind of education would be offered at the university, he said, “There would be a technical course. Also, a variety of courses ranging from management to finance and branding would be offered as part of the non-technical training.”
MacKenzie, however, did not share details of the number of faculty or people that will be employed at the institute.
Harley-Davidson opened its Bawal, India manufacturing facility in 2011 to improve its production flexibility, market responsiveness and strengthen operations in the country. In 2014, Harley-Davidson began manufacturing the Street model motorcycles in Bawal for India, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Its current portfolio comprises 14 models which are retailed from 27 dealerships.
He added that the Harley-Davidson brand continues to grow in India and as part of future strategy the company is also focusing at non-urban areas to bring in more customers.
The bike maker has come up with various initiatives to achieve its goal to connect with prospective customers even in remote areas.
“Quite often there is large distance between the dealerships so we have a mobile truck which is basically a mobile store which we can take to remote locations and engage people to interact with the brand. We started doing it last year and continue to do this year as well,” MacKenzie said.
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