We obtained a copy of an email which was recently sent to some midwest dealers by their Arctic Cat Sales Rep. It’s a bit baffling, but at the same time, gives us Arctic Cat brand lovers some hope of a continued future for Arctic Cat snowmobiles! Read it below:
ARCTIC CAT IS ADDING NEW DEALERS???? SAY WHHHHAAAAATTT? Yep, we are just as stunned as you! Is this proof there is continued life at Arctic Cat? Has the company been sold? Why else would they add two new dealers?
Regardless of the future, ArcticInsider would like to welcome both Pat’s Motorsports and Hauck Powersports to the Arctic Cat family. Both, are exceptional dealers.
Now, talk amongst yourselves!
I believe both of these dealers were prior Yamaha dealers, and because Yamaha is getting out of the sled manufacturing business, these dealers would be just replacing their lost Yamaha sales. So l wouldn’t get too excited about it, but it’s a start.
What would be interesting to see is Arctic Cat’s market share numbers for the last 10 years.
Snow
ATV
Utility SXS
Sport SXS
Yeah, the production numbers and sales numbers are always a giant secret. I would love to know the market share of all brands currently and in the last several years! big secret!
Production numbers are semi secret, but market share numbers are published in power sports business, and other industry publications.
That’s the thing though Arctic Cat should absolutely be targeting every Yamaha dealer in the snowbelt to add Arctic Cat snowmobiles as a winter line. Of course Textron isn’t smart enough to figure it out, but with Yamaha leaving they should have inked a deal to offer a line of redesigned and updated Yamaha powered 4 stroke sleds. They could have even made a deal where a logo appeared on the sled… “Yamaha Genesis 4-Stroke Inside” like the “Intel Inside” logo on PCs. Yamaha still has a lot of loyal 4 stroke customers that would be most likely to switch to Arctic Cat if they offer Yamaha engines. If design budgets are too tight to do a ground up redesign for the 4 strokes a lot of improvements and cosmetic changes could be made to the ProCross to bring it more in-line with the Catalyst. Textron doesn’t have a clue. Someone who does please buy this brand. Please!
Last fall Cat also added a dealer in Parry Sound, Ontario: Georgian Bay Trailers. They were added before the Textron production pause announcements.
As for market share, skidoo openly claimed of having over 60% in 2022. That would have left Polaris, Cat and Yamaha splitting less than 40% at that time.
I believe Gunner Arlaud said on one of his podcasts last December that Cat had sold 4500 858 sleds. Probably they have sold more since then so that would put 858 sales at roughly 5% of North American sled sales, which are generally around 100K per year.