GILROY
– A British investment firm with a penchant for rescuing
historic brands from bankruptcy is very close to buying Indian
Motorcycle, which called Gilroy home for five years.
GILROY – A British investment firm with a penchant for rescuing historic brands from bankruptcy is very close to buying Indian Motorcycle, which called Gilroy home for five years.
Officials at Stellican Ltd., a private equity firm that owns Chris-Craft motorboats, have not said where they would restart production, but Gilroy has been mentioned as a possibility along with Chris-Craft’s home town of Sarasota, Fla.
“We are currently evaluating the Indian brand and the potential that it represents,” Stellican principal David Wright said Tuesday. “Stellican Limited looks at heritage brands as part of its daily business.”
Stellican specializes in restoring distressed companies with valuable brand names, according to its Web site. It bought Chris-Craft in 2001 after the boat-builder went bankrupt the year before. It has also owned an Italian luxury yacht company, an Italian soccer team, a Spanish soft drink producer, an Italian money-exchange bureau and two Italian cash register makers.
Indian, “America’s first motorcycle,” began in 1901 in Springfield, Mass. and competed head-to-head with Harley-Davidson for control of the U.S. market before folding in 1953. It was reborn in Gilroy in late 1998 and built bikes here until September 2003, when it closed again.
As the result of a June 29 auction, Stellican put down a deposit to gain the right of first refusal for Indian’s trademarks and logos, Wright reportedly told numerous people, including former Indian president/CEO Rey Sotelo, former Indian administrator George Nobile, Iron Indian Riders Association board member Michael Sarrail and Indian dealer Bill Staska.
“They are right on the verge of closing this deal,” Sotelo, of Gilroy, said Tuesday.
Sotelo said Stellican founder Stephen Julius, of London, asked him what position he would like with a new Indian company. There was no formal job offer, however.
Sotelo’s understanding is that Stellican officials are wavering between Gilroy and Sarasota as an Indian production site. If they want him involved, he said he will try to sway them toward his home town.
“I have made it very clear to them I’m not moving,” Sotelo said. “We basically let them know that we’ve got a ready-to-go workforce.”
Bill Lindsteadt, executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, said the city will do everything it can to accommodate the firm in Gilroy.
“In fact, it would great if they just slid right back into the old facility,” he said.
Indian’s former Tenth Street headquarters is now vacant.
Even if hired by Indian, Sotelo said he will keep working on a new motorcycle brand he and Nobile are developing.
Sotelo said Julius and Wright visited Gilroy two weeks ago.
Just before that, Staska said they had dinner with him in southern California, where he owns an Indian dealership. Staska said the executives asked him what he thought about Indians being built in Sarasota.
“Personally, I told them it was not a good idea,” Staska said. “It was too far away, and there are more motorcycles sales in California. But I also told them California is not the place to build them right now, what with the (high cost of) workman’s compensation.”
According to Sarrail, Wright said Stellican would probably restart Indian slowly, making 1,500 to 2,000 bikes a year instead of the previous Indian company’s original three-year goal of 16,000.
Nobile said Wright mentioned the possibility of letting Indian lie dormant for two years before restarting production.
In Sarrail and Staska’s minds, Stellican seems like a good owner for Indian.
“They plan to build bikes, and build bikes for some time,” Sarrail said. “They sound pretty genuine.”
“I think they’re aggressive,” Staska said. “They’re all about the brand, and the brand is the secret to this deal. … They’re the only one that can give Harley a run.”
