After the tragic death of the company’s founding partners, US Highland, a promising new US motorcycle company, was going nowhere. In January, it was announced the plant was closing while the search went on for funding to continue operations. There are some new developments.
It seems US Highland had an IPO, (UHLN) on the OTC.
A new Director has been appointed, Robert Harris, who has a varied background in both the automotive and financial fields, most recently with St. James International, an independent investment consultancy firm headquartered in Malaga Spain. Prior to that he was a fight promoter, which appears to be a relevant detail.
From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Harris founded, established and created a sports entertainment organization called Elite Fighting Federation Ltd. where he served as president. Focusing on the promotion of the mixed martial arts, he built and maintained the sports entertainment company. Mr. Harris has extensive experience building relationships with competitors, managers, corporate partners and provincial Athletic Commissions. Since its inception, Mr. Harris has succeeded in creating strong brand awareness for Elite and has produced multiple sold-out events, all of which have accomplished PPV broadcasts throughout Canada and the USA.
More interesting than Harris is the name of the new CEO/CFO, it’s John R. Fitzpatrick, III. If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, he is the former President and CEO of the Gilroy Indian Motorcycle Company, one of several ill-fated attempts to bring back the Indian brand.
Mr. Fitzpatrick left Harley-Davidson to become the Vice President of Strategy at the reformation of Indian Motorcycles in Gilroy, California and was promoted to president and chief executive officer shortly after joining the company.
Both of these appointments took place on September 20, 2011. Just a few weeks later, they sponsored a UFC fight on October 8th in Houston, Texas. Did any of you see that fight? If so, do you remember any reference to US Highland?
Every situation is different, but this is certainly an interesting way to get the company back in the motorcycle business. There didn’t seem to be any press releases, at least none that I’m aware of, alerting the motorcycle community to their reorganization and funding, a logical place to start if you want to sell motorcycles, though there were the required SEC disclosures. The sponsorship of a UFC matchup, so soon thereafter, seems a bit premature for brand awareness when the company itself isn’t really doing anything yet. This could be a story worth watching.
Link: US Highland
Link: UHLN snapshot
Link: John R. Fitzpatrick
Link: UFC fight sponsorship
gunner says
Sounds like an interesting start of a new chapter in this ill-fated story. From various attempts in Sweden to …..this. Perhaps there are no intentions to produce any bikes at all before building the right image. Does anyone care?
Will Silk says
While I wish I could say I was excited to hear this news, I’m left thinking more of what they are doing wasting their time in UFC and not R&D for motorcycle production. While I believe Cycle World tested the US Highland naked bike and proclaimed it to be very well done, there was still a number of issues that needed to be addressed prior to the company placing the bike in the hands of the public. To my knowledge, the loss of the management staff occured around the time of the test and none of these machines made it into customer hands.
I often see Harley Davidson sponsoring fighting events and I always say, “Imagine what that money could have done in helping one of their bikes perform better.” Seeing US Highland following suit, it certainly puts me out as a perspective customer. I would rather see them sponsoring some form of two wheeled motorsport. That I would understand immediately, and it would make perfect sense.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
My whole point about the fight promotion was how premature it was, as you said, R&D not UFC. The director/fight promoter must just be falling back on what he knows or enjoys doing. Following the HD fight promotion model makes no sense for this company.
When a startup company is as small as US Highland, you need some real hands on leadership, like the guys who ran it before the plane crash. Once things get moving and growing, you can bring in the managers. US Highland isn’t at the manager stage, yet. I hope they have a chance to get there before the money’s gone.
Doug S says
Dave Despain’s Wind Tunnel show had Bob Lutz on last week. Mr. Lutz has a new book called, “Car Guys vs Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business”. Based on the brief interview during Wind Tunnel it looks like an intriguing read and is applicable to many industries, not just the automotive business.
“Manager stage” — based on this book, it will be interesting to see what types of ‘managers’ growing companies should be including in their ranks. Bob Lutz is old enough to have been in management before the popularity of MBAs, yet young enough to still have worked during a time when MBAs were the ones promoted to decision-making positions. His perspective covers 2 different eras of American business that have a variety of successes.
Bob from Bugtussle says
My concern is this: What did the “sponsorship opportunity” cost?
From what I can tell the OTC/Pennystock IPO generated around $ 5.2 million for funding.
How much of that has gone to the former director, and to the two new principals?
The web site claims that bike orders will be processed in April 2012.
There have been updates to the site within the last week, but not much information.
I have emailed the sales contact every 2 months for the last year and get the standard “things are happening” answer.
I would really like to see a detailed answer from the director or CEO.
It really concerns me that there was some sort of collusion with the previous director and the new people. I hope that this opportunity is not going to go the way of the Gillroy Indian company, where more than $200 million dollars was wasted with no real result.
Highland has a real chance if done correctly, but I don’t see that starting with sponsoring UFC bouts as a correct route.
It makes me think that maybe this Robert Harris fellow used Highland IPO funds to pay for another business venture…?
I hope Highland management will issue a meaningful press release or statement ASAP.
This would be such a fun bike to ride with either of the big twins and such light weight I would love to see them succeed.
Bob from Bugtussle
B50 Jim says
Sounds like a fast shuffle with US Highland’s remaining money. As Paul said, big promotions and tie-ins to sport events should wait until there’s a product, and a functioning manufacturer actually building products and selling them. I’m fairly certain we’ll read about US Highland’s demise in Kneeslider. It is almost sure to go the way of all the failed Indian ventures before it.
Kevin says
Great way to start running a business. Spend money it doesn’t have.
I really hoped this would actually be a good American company. But once again, we are cursed. Cannondale, ATK, Buell and now US Highland. And US Highland had the best chance because they had very promising products. I guess it is down to Motus and EBR.
skadamo says
Hope they pull it off!
US Highland has been a public company since before 2008…
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=UHLN.PK+Interactive#chart3:symbol=uhln.pk;range=my;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined
Fred M. says
This whole thing sounds like suspicious diverting of Highland investor funds and I would not be at all surprised to see civil, criminal, or regulatory actions result.
That said, when you lose motorcycle engineering visionaries, you don’t hire an ex fight promoter and someone who failed to keep the resurrected Indian motorcycle company afloat. Had they brought in management and engineering talent from firms like MV Agusta, Buell, or Rotax, then I’d have said that they had a fighting (no pun intended) chance. This just looks like a death spiral that will be punctuated by lawsuits.
QrazyQat says
It doesn’t sound good. Reminds me too much of Amiga back in the days of Gould and Haig stuffing their pockets instead of giving Jay Miner’s crew some leeway in production.
B50 Jim says
It appears that nobody is fooled by all these machinations. No posts here mention anticipating the new models or great engines. Got a feeling it’s the last we’ll see of US Highland, and the last its investors will see of their money.
Ken says
Its always a little sad when something with promise dies a slow death. The key thing is they HAD potential. The stainless steel frames… Who will want that now? The V-twin sounded exciting if for no other reason than to buy one and stick into the project of your choice. But, would you really want to purchase one of those bikes knowing the engineers that were dialing in their specific fuel injection system are long gone? US Highland was something exciting 4 years ago. Unless they have something magic up thier sleaves, they’ve kinda been passed by.