A fall in sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles has adversely affected third-quarter earnings.

As a result, the Milwaukee-based group has said it will lay off some of its 6,500-strong workforce.

It sold 72,178 motorcycles in the third quarter, more than 1,000 fewer than a year ago, and its sales for the first nine months of 2015 were down by more than 3,000, to 217,770.

A spokesman said that the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) has been the group’s “saving grace”, with sales over the first nine months of the year up by 16.9% (more than 2,300 units).

Revising the sales forecast for 2015, chief executive Matthew Levatich warned that the business “expects more competition going forward” and intends to invest more in both product development and marketing “to maintain
the premium nature of the brand.”

He added: “We have also had some headwinds of our own making, such as product availability and voluntary recall. We fully recognise that we have to raise our game. The path forward will play out over a number of years.”