Posted by
kabolThursday, September 30, 20100
comments
Update on new rack and what we did with it. We take pride in our work http://www.mrp-speed.com
So I was talking to Dealer News about their article on market consolidation that they published and I had to show them what third party support for these brands that have left means: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztx3uN... this is the video from before.
It is a very big job to consolidate brands and give support, some dealers count on us to be there so they avoid lawsuit or to give warranty when a state requires it even if the distributor went out of business. Never fear MRP is here to support these brands! http://www.mrp-speed.com
MRP distributes OEM parts for TNG (CMSI) select models of CF Moto Daelim Motors Korea ( parts should appear on website by mid July) Malaguti of Italy (www.Malaguti.com) Keeway Southeast (Keeway Vento QJ Andretti Yamati models) CPI Taiwan Powersports Factory Brands PSF Diamo Cubik (matches OEM Vento part numbers) as well as QJ and ZNEN (who manufacture bikes for a variety of scooter importers) such as FlyScooters Lance BMS Qlink models that were ZNEN corresponding to matching TNG parts.
Every scooter is someone’s first ride we help the dealers and consumers find those hard to find parts. Doesn't matter what brand it is we've been doing the Chinese scooter parts thing since 2004 so we can help you find the right part.
Since January 2009 MRP has expanded by acquiring the QJ – Keeway Southeast distribution parts warehouse the Diamo USA / LS Motorsports / Italjet USA parts warehouse CPI – TAIWAN Distribution and TNG Scooters.
The company has OEM parts for Malaguti scooters of Italy Benelli (acquired by QJ in 2006) the Italian brand now made in China and sold in the USA under the Andretti name MH Motorhispania of Spain RX Loncin Lifan Linhai Zongshen Wangye MS UTVs and CPI Taiwan. In addition the company distributes performance parts from Athena Malossi Turbo Kit Innova Vee Rubber Duro Bando Gates Powerlink Posh Maxxis Namura Scooter Ninja Slipstreamer and MRP.
Products carried by MRP can be obtain exclusively at select Motorcycle Dealerships and Repair Shops in the USA. MRP is the one stop wholesale ONLY scooter buggy and ATV parts distributor. For a list of retailers visit www.mrp-speed.com When it comes to parts we have it all:
From Scooters to Chinese UTVs we got it:
* air filters * axles * batteries * battery chargers * bearings * belts * body parts * brakes * cables * carburetors * CDIs * chains * controllers (electric) * electronics * Engine Parts * engines & motors * frame parts * gas caps and gas tanks * handles grips controls * lights * mufflers * sprockets * tires and tubes * wheels
We have a ton of stuff make sure to check it out on our site. Parts for: 125cc GY6 QMI152/157 QMJ152/157 4-stroke engines 250cc 4-stroke CN250 water-cooled 172mm engines 4-stroke QMB139 engines 50cc 2-stroke D1E41QMB02 D1E41QMB H1E41QMB and 1E41QMB model engines. This motor is used on many popular Chinese scooters including the Qingqi QMQT50-B2 50cc 2-stroke 1PE40QMB Minarelli based engine and more!
MRP has added more parts to its lineup to be the number one source of all scooters items. Some distributors carry Chinese or European scooter parts but MRP is the only company in the USA the covers the full range.
MRP earlier this year acquired parts from the now-closed QJ - Keeway warehouse and product from the defunct Diamo USA/LS Motorsports. The company also has OEM parts for Malaguti MH RX Loncin Lifan Linhai Zonshen MS UTVs and distributes aftermarket parts from Athena Malossi Turbo Kit Innova Vee Rubber Namura Scooter Ninja Slipstreamer and MRP's house brand.
Posted by
kabolTuesday, September 28, 20100
comments
So Kevin Miller from CFMOTO USA was here as we opened the first box of new Disk Brakes for the CFMOTO lineup from NG Disk Spain. We also saw the first new models for the Zuma BW 125, BW 50, Xciting 250, GY6 and More!
NG RACE DISKS AND ROTORS NG BRAKE DISKS AND ROTORS ARE DISTRIBUTED IN THE USA BY MRP YOU CAN BUY THEM FROM ANY OF OUR 1,000 US DEALERS CLICK HERE TO FIND THEM: Stocking Dealer locator http://www.martinracingdealer.com/loc... Or you can visit http://www.cyclegear.com and order one online today.
Posted by
kabolMonday, September 27, 20100
comments
Trinkets, toys, decor, making the store a shopping destination MRP Can help with new cool items. Here are some wacky ideas to help keep the store a cool place to visit for more than just a scooter. Make it an experience. http://www.mrp-speed.com
Products carried by MRP can be obtain exclusively at select Motorcycle Dealerships and Repair Shops in the USA. MRP is the one stop wholesale ONLY scooter buggy and ATV parts distributor. For a list of retailers visit www.mrp-speed.com When it comes to parts we have it all:
From Scooters to Chinese UTVs we got it:
* air filters * axles * batteries * battery chargers * bearings * belts * body parts * brakes * cables * carburetors * CDIs * chains * controllers (electric) * electronics * Engine Parts * engines & motors * frame parts * gas caps and gas tanks * handles grips controls * lights * mufflers * sprockets * tires and tubes * wheels
Posted by
kabolTuesday, September 21, 20100
comments
Sometimes the message gets lost in the transmission. Too much noise these days. We try to get the word out, but sometimes we all get busy and you don’t find out your local distributor closed until a year later.
I’ve heard from many United Motors dealers that found out UM closed five months after the fact. They simply say “ I didn’t need anything, my store is full of bikes and I haven’t needed any parts,” and that’s when MRP comes in. “That’s when I called MRP for a solution,” he tells me. That’s when our company saves the say. However, even our message still get’s lost in the transmission.
We went from being known mostly for race parts, but the truth is Racing parts are only part of what we do. We also carry clothing, jackets, gloves, accessories, and 90% now is OEM parts. Parts you cannot get anywhere else except from MRP in North America.
We have let people know we have partners. All you have to do is open a current trade publication and you will see MRP is advertising with our industry partner Jonway Scooters. They are a large Chinese OEM who is pretty much the entry level unit for most companies. Jonway in the past has supplied SUNL, ROKETA, REDSTREAK, STRIKER, JMSTAR, and host of other private label importers since they one of the top three makers in China. So when dealers call us looking for the least expensive scooter they can offer to compete with these private label brands we tell them its cheaper to go to the source - why not go to the factory who makes them? So it’s also been great for us since thanks to Jonway we know whats in the generic Chinese bikes that dealers sell. We have these parts available to the average dealer.
So Dealers and Stores know that we know how to keep Chinese scooter running. We were the first company to really focus on these parts back in 2005. However, our current ad fails to get the word out to dealers that we have virtually every replacement part for virtually every off-brand scooter ever sold in America. From MuZ Mozquito Scooters we have the KDU engine parts ( nobody else carries these ) for the Malaguti lineup we have all the engine parts from Franco Morini all the way to the Kymco Air and Liquid Cooled engines, from Linhai 260cc engine parts to the new 300 and 400cc parts. MRP has got it all.
I’ve made several blog entries on the consolidation going on in the industry and I’ve posted at JustGootaScoot and TheScooterScoop letting dealers know we added Daelim, Diamo, Italjet, TNG Scooters among others, but I think it’s difficult to understand so in this video behind me you can see what 12,000 parts look like. Our focus and our image the past few years was only racing parts, but the truth is when you take over a distributor that closes say Daelim with 200 US dealers, the dealers still in business need us. The thousands of Daelim riders in the US need us. Same applies to CPI, and big companies like TNG. CMSI put over 100,000 units out on US roads. Where do you think consumers will go to? They will go to their local MRP dealer. So if you advertise the brands that we have parts for we guarantee your service and repairs will go up. People forget scooters in America get passed down, resold, and several owners will repair the same Vespa or Malaguti scooter. Especially a higher brand name like Benelli or Daelim which is worth repairing over and over again. So if you need parts for these MRP is the source.
Now if you watch the media you’ll realize companies like Powersports Factory are down to two employees and no longer have a parts warehouse. The parts being the most important aspect of any scooter distributor in the USA. So who do dealers turn to for an oil tank or gas tank on a Benelli scooter now? Exactly. You need to have parts on the market and as a third party solutions provider we’ve proven ourselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHsWsgSdBJg
Since the Carter warehouse burnded down MRP has sold over $10,000 worth of SYM / Carter Go Kart parts to dealers. We’ve sold a lot of engine issues. We’ve shipped express pistons and emergency items until the Canadian distributor got involved in helping dealers, but before this happened. We were first. We knew SYM ( having been the original importer back in 2003 ) and we knew what needed to be done like carrying essential parts for the SYM units. Variators, clutches, pistons, things dealers could not do without. We were there and dealers are back on their feet thanks to our sourcing abilities. In the past year we acquired 7 distributors including Cubik, Keeway Southeast, DAELIM MOTORS USA, CPI, Diamo – Italjet America all these companies over the last decade put over 100000 units on the roads. So if you’re a dealership that wants to tap into the only segment making money for small powersports dealers right now then you want to repair all the brands out there. You need, must have, cannot do without access to these parts. Then MRP is the source for scooter parts you need! That’s the point we try to stress and get across in our blog, videos, and ads. We have parts for everything these days. No other cheap Chinese distributor will get you these. THESE ARE NOT GENERIC CHINESE PARTS – ONLY MRP has parts for new Italjet, Malaguti, BZ, CPI these brands all use proprietary designs. Compare to our competition that maybe only has 1,500 to 2,000 scooter parts and they are the most basic of generic parts, they won’t have anything for a T-Max or a Kymco 150 much less a TNG Baja 150 or ZNEN Motor like we do. So make money, use our manuals, use the site, and help keep those 100,000 scooters on the road.
We have your back as we add more Daelim and CPI to our site every day. www.mrp-speed.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHBuf7vmSww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROLEba97JVQ
all these companies over the last decade put over 100,000 units on the roads. So a smart dealer would say WOW - I can use my MRP account to access all these parts. That's the point we try to stress. In a bad market don't turn business away.
So make money, use our manuals. We have your back as we add more Daelim and CPI to our site every day. http://www.mrp-speed.com Over 150,000 Scooters in the USA are supported by MRP
More ideas for the Scooter Shop and how to stay in business. This is the most recent entry in my series of video blogs on running a better scooter shop dealership.
So I got a couple of emails from dealers looking for warranty parts this morning thanks to yesterdays blog. So I will start my morning rant by saying Powersports Factory is just another symptom of the problem.
We are all so busy running our small companies that we don't have time to really investigate the people we do business with. So it's easy to believe responses like "oh don't worry we'll give you a discount on the next scooter order for that leaky gas tank," it's a shame because most of us want to believe people and some of us are just poorly informed about the laws in place to protect them from these actions. So dealers and third parties have to ask if this company is down to one or two employees how are they even going to comply with the Thread Act or different agency regulations? Can a distributor with only two full time employees comply with over 30 state and federal agency requirements? I don't think so.
I'm amazed Benelli scooters were sold in Florida when Powersports Factory didn't have a renewed distributors license in the state for the Benelli product. That just goes to show how the system is broken at all the levels.
You also have sub-distributors of former companies like Vento and JMstar dumping product. One Puerto Rico distributor had 1,500 Chinese GY6 150cc scooters sitting in a warehouse for three years. He just sold them back to the mainland for $300 a piece, that's less than production cost. He lost over $900 a unit, plus the interest. Now all these Primo Terminex Scooters will be on Craigst list in NJ in the next few weeks. All this does is put more pressure on unsuspecting dealers and lower the overall perceived value in the mind of the consumer since they will be picking these up for $600 retail. Obviously, we can blame the consumer in America for all this including the mushrooms:
If there was no demand for Chinese mushrooms nobody would sell them. It might be a combination of ignorance, being cheap, or the fact that people genuinely believe you can get the same quality out of a $600 scooter as a Kymco. I don't know, but I do know the system is not designed for this type of rampant consumer. He / She will expect the dealer to comply with the same laws, the same lemon laws, and will be back at the dealership expecting warranty on any new vehicle be it a Andretti Benelli from Powersports Factory or a 2007 Vento that is now selling for the first time.
So we can partially blame consumers for everything that's happening. Let's face it if they didn't like the style of a Benelli or the pricepoint of JMStar this wouldnt be happening. However, there are other cases where it is a quality product like a Hyosung. Everyone knows this Korean maker is an OEM supplier to Suzuki, so you can put a Suzuki side by side with a Hyosung and many of them are the exact same thing, but ask about warranty and support and you're a hundred times better going off with a Suzuki. Why would I say that? We'll I deal with several hundred former UM dealers. Ask any United Motors dealer that is dealing with the fact the HMA ( Hyosung Motors North America ) won't cover the warranties of any new UM rebadged Hyosung Motorcycle and you will know what I am referring to. Worse yet is the fact that Korean Management won't understand why US dealers won't buy more Hyosungs when they got burned by rebadged Hyosungs.
So some of it can be blamed on the consumer, but its also an industry problem since there is a lack of oversight. When the parents are away kids go for the cookie jar and the scooter industry is all about self-regulation. It doesn't work in a bad economy, it really doesn't because everyone will cut corners. The truth is the Consumer Safety Board is already overwhelmed with a ton of Chinese products that contain lead, poison, and it's affecting all the agencies across the board since more and more food products come from China. We've gotten so lazy in this country even the Amish don't want to pick the mushrooms
So my advice to the dealers. Do your research. Is Powersports Factory closing? Are dealers not getting parts? Find out from the blogs, Dealer News, do your research before shelling out all this money to not get warranty on your parts.
After reading all these articles you might ask yourself where is the bank that financed this operation these guys called Crossroads? We'll the truth is they are out of the picture. They sold their interest and liquidated, got paid and are out. So there is really nobody left with any assets from what I can see online, remember this is all public information since its on the SEC site. Where is the SEC? NHTSA? Who is looking into the fuel tank situation? I don't know any of these things, we're just trying to help people find parts, but I hear the frustration, I hear the anger at people loosing money. I know that people like Glenn Russo are a bunch of thieves and that their companies like Avatar financial and other companies are fronts to steal money and take people's credit card information so it really comes down to reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and hope that eventually they get what they are due.
Like I said before everyone in the industry has gotten hurt by the actions of a few, from MRP not getting paid, from dealers not getting warranties, from dealers loosing thousands for product they thought they paid but didn't. You can go online and see how even Dealer News magazine is suing them and will likely never see a dollar back. In the end that same consumer that keeps pushing the prices down by looking for the cheapest deal might find himself with a scooter with no parts availability because they helped in pushing dealers to carrying more of those cheaper bikes without support and that dealer that carried them might get sued and the vicious circle continues.
Posted by
kabolMonday, September 20, 20100
comments
Malaguti in Italy recently starting selling an upgrade to the new Blog 160cc models.
Does anyone think this would work in the states for other models? Supposedly the same company has models for multiple scooters out and available in the states.
Would you put this on an Aprilia or Kymco? It's not easy to remove that's why I'm wondering if Americans would really add this to a CFMOTO 150 or to an HD 200. Having so many models out there it makes it a very difficult accessory to promote.
When Benelli first entered the USA about 3 years ago under the Andretti name I was one of the first that questioned it. I knew the company was broke for years, Mr. Malaguti himself mentioned it to me in 2002 at a trade show since I was always impressed by the design and appeal of the name. I would tell him they sold few scooters, but they had great brand name recognition all over the world. That's all they had he would say. Soon he was right BETA, Benelli, ITALJET, all soon left the market in one bankruptcy or another, but soon after I got out of the scooter business myself the Benelli brand was purchased by the owners of Keeway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKy4hTssHiM
Now the brand had a chance of making a comeback. So when I finally got to meet the great Mario Andretti in 2007 at the Dealer Expo I was amazed that he really didn't know much about what he was getting into, he just wanted that licensing check and maybe a few bucks. Mario's done a great job on appearing on any number of products lately and I was him I would be selling out and people would be using "Scooter Maven" toothbrushes, deodorant, and even kids vitamins if Johnson and Johnson came knocking. So I understand the need to license the name, but Powersport s Factory?
Go three years into the future and we have a situation where not a day goes by that I don't get a phone call from a dealer looking for parts. Normally it goes something like this. We get the CDI from MRP, then we call Sunright and get the plastic, then we try to get warranty from PSF, but they never call us back. I hear this two to three times a day. Haven't heard this story? No surprise Dealer News hasn't mentioned it, nor has any other industry magazine. They won't, because they could alienate potential advertisers. Every month another magazine closes so if you owned a magazine would you want to write something negative about a scooter company in this economy?
I do have to say in this months Dealer News http://www.DealerNews.com we saw some of the best quotes ever that pretty much define what is going on in the business every day and if I may quote Matthey Camps article here" The 2009 year was an effective one for reducing the number of distributors involved in the market, and 2010 seems set to continue the trend. The market appears to be in the midst of a shakeout where those distributors who have OEM backing or sole rights to distribution are more likely to survive and the distributors who shop around each year for the best deals but can’t support their product are dwindling. The days of small-scale
operations -- importing a couple of containers and retailing them at flea markets or by the side of the road -- are being consigned to history; the scooter market is maturing.
Parts support has been an important issue for Chinese and Taiwanese makes, and in these times when consumers are careful with their hard-earned dollars, the ability to receive service and parts support could mean the difference between a getting a sale or not. "
Only guy in the industry that doesn't care about selling ads right now is Guidos Blog who has reported on PSF Shenanigans in the past he's a great reporter. So I really have no answer for the dealers, consumers out there. I dont know if Keeway North America will take over or Sunright or PIT motors. All I know is the PSF doesn't have a parts warehouse or parts support, they don't pay us to handle warranties, so if I was a dealer I would say they are probably out of the business of selling scooters right now.
Let's see what happens in the coming weeks, maybe Keeway, Sungiht, or QJ will let us all know what the deal with Benelli is for the future and if for once we can stop calling them Andrettis.
So if you saw the last blog post, you know the market is down, stores need to survive, and we need to repair everything out there ( which only MRP can help you with ) so here we are its a new world out there. Still you need to build a better display and you need some ideas like do I want an exhaust display? Lots to think about, no worries give us the models and we will help you build the best display possible.
Thats what MRP is all about - give us a shout 305-599-8993 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LfqkEa9zts3
We'll last week Dealer News published the most up to date report on the US scooter market for 2009 and 2010. By far the best report of any industry trade and probably the best collection of charts info outside of the MIC. The good thing about the firm behind these reports Power Products Marketing is that they actually get the info from the customs entries and analyze how many units were imported. This is free under Federal Law, the issue is no magazine these days will pay to get this info since its pretty costly, so most industry people just estimate or use MIC numbers, even the MIC sends a letter out and asks the Chinese importers to volunteer this info. More than likely you get some foreign secretary who is a factory employee from China here on a tourist Visa working in a warehouse somewhere in Texas and they will grab the MIC paper and throw it in the garbage can. One could only hope and pray NHTSA and DOT would wake up and put some requirements like in Europe where all this becomes public record and then industry people would know exactly what is going on. So the only reliable info comes from people who buy the customs entries like this firm.
Again, great article, but it failed to mention the numbers each importer imported, the quantities taken over by customs, and in detail all the companies that have closed. In retrospect these issues are just as important as say a leaky gas tank on new Benelli X50s which nobody seems to be mentioning. It also failed to mention MRP and how we took over 7 of those companies listed. It's like a dealer who wrote me last week asking me what I thought of Vento? Where have you been the last three years, the company went out of business. This is the main reason because magazines love taking their ads, giving them booth space at the Dealer Expo, but when Vento ( FILL IN THE BLANK ) United Motors, TANK, Cubik, Xtreeme Scooters, or whoever goes out of business they don't report on it. They also don't report on where dealers can go to get the parts they need to avoid getting A - SUED, B - SUED, and C - SUED. For any dealer that had a lemon law lawsuit in Arizona MRP not only was a lifesaver but we held the line, shipped parts by air, and helped a bunch of people that otherwise would have to have given money back to consumers. So this info is just as important to get out to the dealers as the ads and all the advetorials out there. ARTICLE ONLINE
Just to over the Dealer News article I think the best quote was: The days of small-scale operations -- importing a couple of containers and retailing them at flea markets or by the side of the road -- are being consigned to history; the scooter market is maturing. Parts support has been an important issue for Chinese and Taiwanese makes, and in these times when consumers are careful with their hard-earned dollars, the ability to receive service and parts support could mean the difference between a getting a sale or not.
MAN WHAT HAS THE SCOOTER MAVEN BEEN SAYING THESE PAST TWO YEARS? I'm glad Dealer News finally put it in the magazine.
Stay tuned as the market becomes factory direct. TGB and others will have a hard time returning to the market unless they do it themselves, the world of easy credit is gone, no longer will car dealers be importers, its not the battle of the OEMs direct in AMERICA.
Todays Project in the Research and Development department is a big bore piston for the Joker 100cc scooter we have in the warehouse. This is a classic Japanese Honda mid 90s grey market bike which Aprilia copied in the early 2000s to make the Habana later called the Mojito when Aprilia refurbished 1500 units of used 2000 and 2001 models they repurchased in Italy because they wouldnt sell and sent them to the US as the Mojito. Later on the Chinese OEMs copied the mold particularly ZNEN Motor Co and it has sold as the IL BELLO, ELVIS, RETRO from TNG and a ton of other names. In the end the original is called the Honda Joker and the Scooter Maven happens to love it so we are going to create our very own big bore cylinder for it and use a forged piston. So this is our new project for Sept 2010 http://www.mrp-speed.com
Posted by
kabolSaturday, September 18, 20100
comments
Guided Tour of Scooter Super Store Museum Part 9 of tribute videos
For many of those that never had the chance to see SSTAM in person I am uploading this in honor of one of the greatest collectors in the US scooter industry Peter Warrick. See his video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhmxXLbryU He had an amazing museum, he was a giving person, there are so many things he did for South Florida its difficult to know where to start, and Peter didn't want people to know sometimes he was the guy donating money or helping in some program. Still he is missed and he had one of the best collections anyone in America has ever made when it comes to scooters, exotic cars, trains, toys and more. Support the stores visit an SSTAM location, and watch the videos I just uploaded of Peter himself talking about scooters. SSTAM is an MRP dealer http://www.mrp-speed.com MORE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxyOrUPRZaA MORE ON SSTAM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkzwSq09v0 SUPPORT THE SSTAM STORES VISIT A LOCAL SSTAM LOCATION
This is an MRP dealer that commissioned a series of infomercials 2 Wheelin, commercials, and informative videos. Please visit one of their locations if you get a chance.
More videos and commercials from one of the most interesting and passionate people in the world of Scooters. The late Peter Warrick commissioned some of the best infomercials America has ever seen about Vespa, Scooters, Safety, and the history of the 2 wheel classic. We are proud to have SSTAM as one of our dealers http://www.mrp-speed.com if you have a local SSTAM shop in your area make sure to visit it and support the store.
more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxyOrUPRZaA&feature=channel
part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IftpJcJBPgM&feature=related
part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FPUDGHLF2o
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkzwSq09v0&feature=related
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXTxSf0YUn0
More on Scooter Super Stores of America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFwv1TqZaws
Posted by
kabolFriday, September 10, 20100
comments
Sales in Europe fell as badly as they did in the United States between 2008 and 2010. It's even more competitive in Europe where most cities have twenty repair shops. Take a look at Madrid or Rome and you will see Scooter Shops every few streets. The way many of them have survived is by repairing everything. Even Honda exclusive stores repair Chinese, Kymco, SYM, or TGB. Vespa - Piaggio stores do service work on everything including Yamahas unlike many stores in the USA that refused to change with the market these guys have adapted since there is almost no money in new unit sales. Today in Italy a new store makes less than 7% on a new Malaguti or Benelli scooter. The Chinese flood of product have also brought down the prices of parts to the point where the only way a store can stay in business is by offering service and to do so they need to REPAIR EVERYTHING AND HAVE PARTS IN STOCK.
MRP has been working with US dealers to adapt to the new market reality since 2008 by being the ONLY source in North America for many brands of OEM parts from CPI, Cubik K, Diamo, Italjet America, Malaguti, MH, SN, and more....we have OEM parts for Linhai, CFMOTO, QJ, Benelli Andretti and much much more over 12,000 SKUS for scooters at http://www.mrp-speed.com
I absolutely loved this article by Arlo on Dealer News. Two things that were left out is the trend that has started in Europe and how dealers there barely survive on service. They can't make any money on parts when parts makers in the scooter world now sell direct to the public and they can't make money on scooters. Some dealers there survive on less than 7%. So the only place they make money is service.
Now if you add all the illegal shops in Rome and what the owners have had to resort to by hiring illegal workers you really have a mess nobody likes to talk about.
Arlo wrote one of the best articles I read and I wish more websites would do this. I think he just failed to mention Dennis Fox and Kirk Fox are the initials in DKscooters and DennisKirk.com this is one of the first things you learn when you enter the business. Are they owened by PU no, not directly, it's probably a trust or something that can't be looked into. Simply put they are separate corporate entities as his research indicated. Also, it doesn't really matter if its discrete or direct anymore plenty of distributors especially the Scooter World are selling direct. The Internet and the Chinese supply have made this into the wild west economic system so you can't blame anyone - It has done away with any exclusivity, any four tier sales system ( factory - distributor - dealer - consumer ) so dealers can expect even more hard times on all this.
Even brands that were established by cutting the teeth of sales reps with product demos and dealer direct like Scorpion have changed to selling to Tucker Rocky and selling direct to consumers. Tucker already has some of the loosest MAP policies around so its a free fall in the industry when it comes to dealers. The funny thing is most dealers don't have the time or the energy to compete they buy a PSN Powersports Network Website and just drop ship it all and ignore the fact they can't compete online anymore. It's a really sad state of events. I think Arlos advice is the best. Make as much noise as possible, complain, and support the brands that don't compete with the store.
BrokenChainWhy has the industry allowed so many vendors to compete against their own dealers through online sales? Shouldn’t everyone respect the supply channel? Or do some vendors have legitimate reasons for selling directly?
Two years ago, I was attending an annual meeting of MIC members when a guest speaker told the 200 assembled vendors that they all should be selling online. “The most important way for the aftermarket to sell is the Internet,” the market analyst said. “Companies used to be worried about how it would affect their retail establishments. That way of thinking has gone by the wayside.”
This comment surprised me. When the analyst asked for questions, I asked whether he believed motorcycle dealers in particular no longer cared whether their suppliers sold directly. He gave a quick affirmative and left the stage.
As we dispersed for a coffee break, a vendor rep came up to me and said that he was glad I had asked my question. Vendor sales to consumers, he assured me, were still highly controversial.
Well, perhaps the speaker had misunderstood my question, so I confronted him during the break for clarification. He said that he’d been speaking generally, but that, yes, he believed the idea also applied to suppliers and dealers in the powersports industry. He qualified this by saying that supplier websites could link to dealership sites or incorporate dealers in profit sharing. When I noted that many — probably most — dealerships did not partake in e-commerce, he shrugged his shoulders.
Again, this was two years ago. In hindsight, it seems that the analyst was on to something. The idea of wholesalers bypassing their dealers is not as controversial as it once was. Why is this?
What’s particularly bad is when suppliers sell products for below wholesale. “That’s what we’ve seen more often — is them selling directly to the public and undercutting us,” Crystal Ashby, marketing manager for Chaparral Motorsports in San Bernardino, Calif., told me in late August. “For instance, we’ve seen particular companies selling close-out merchandise on their website for below our cost, and then we’ll call and say, ‘OK, we want to buy that for a customer at that price.’ And they won’t sell it to us at that price. They want to sell to us at our higher dealer cost.
“Any company, any distributor that sells direct to the public is really robbing everyone of a sale,” she said.
Some suppliers claim that they must sell consumer-direct to survive — or they claim they retail only noncurrent items.
Ashby is skeptical. “They’re saying that because we [the dealers] can’t facilitate all of the business, they need to help out,” she said. “Well, if they were to supply me with everything that I needed, then I could probably facilitate all of the business. But they’ll run off X amount of inventory for their distribution company and then they’ll run off X amount of inventory for their direct-to-the-public inventory. Then, when our inventory runs out, they won’t pick from that retail inventory because they’re making double, triple the margin they would be making by selling it to us.”
Another excuse I’ve heard from vendors/retailers is that in many parts of the country, no dealer exists that stocks their products. “How else can people buy our stuff?” they ask.
Ashby has an answer to this question also. “Now there is a dealer in every area because of the Internet,” she noted. And she wasn’t referring only to big Internet operations like Chaparral. Any-sized dealer today can afford e-commerce thanks to companies like ARI, 50 Below and PowerSports Network. “Every small dealer could grab a hold of one of those Internet providers,” she said. “They provide a really good package that is really easy to work with. It doesn’t take a lot to get started.” (Click here for a comprehensive buyer’s guide for the three website providers mentioned.)
FoxRacingSo which vendors are selling to the public? The first big names that come to mind are Fox Racing and Shift. The company that owns those brands has been doing it for many years, seemingly without compunction. And in my last blog posting about MAP policies, I mention Scorpion Sports’ relatively new shopping cart.
But as far as I know, neither of these companies is undercutting its dealers, the ultimate sin. I didn’t ask Ashby to name names when she made her comment about such suppliers, but perhaps I should have. If you know of any undercutting vendors, post a comment below. Please provide links supporting your claims.
Now, at this point, I pretty much have to address one of the industry’s longest-running rumors: that Parts Unlimited is somehow the true owner of prominent online retailer Dennis Kirk. If true, this would be a big story. Accordingly, a few years ago, I investigated by contacting Minnesota’s Secretary of State office for Dennis Kirk’s articles of incorporation. There are two sets of papers, which is not unusual as companies often form more than one corporation to separate assets. Dennis Kirk Inc. was incorporated in 1977; Dennis Kirk Store Inc. (the online operation maybe?) was incorporated in 1995. The sole board of directors for the latter corporation is listed as Fred Fox, the founder of LeMans.
FredFox
But unless I’m mistaken, this doesn’t indicate ownership. A high-level Parts Unlimited executive once ensured me that LeMans does not own Dennis Kirk. The truth of the matter, he said, was that Dennis Kirk had long been a favorite customer of Fox’s. This alone explained Fox’s being the initial board of directors. It also explained, I suppose, past off-the-record reports from employees that Fox visits Dennis Kirk’s facility with an authoritative air.
At the time I was doing this research, Dennis Kirk declined to speak with me. But the special attention from LeMans could be reason enough for it to shy away from the trade publications.
In conclusion, I won’t assume LeMans owns Dennis Kirk when both companies deny it and I’ve seen no proof to the contrary. Besides, look at it this way: LeMans is roughly a $1 billion company. Motorcycle Superstore, the country’s largest online powersports retailer, reportedly had sales of $43 million in 2008. Even if Dennis Kirk’s sales approached that number, it’s hard to believe that LeMans would risk the goodwill of its entire dealer base just for the extra margin on such relatively small volume.
Baker[1]But enough about that. Let’s get back to the vendors that we know are selling to the public. It always amuses me when I get a press release from a vendor about its new shopping cart on its consumer website. What great news to share with your dealers! The latest companies to make such announcements are Baker Drivetrain and Saddlemen. Click here for Baker Drivetrain’s story. A Saddlemen rep said that the company is willing to sell directly but prefers customers to buy from dealers. As if customers give a rat’s ass about the vendor’s preference!
Instead of selling directly to people, established brands like Fox Racing, Scorpion and Saddlemen could be linking to their retailers’ websites. Or they could do what Kawasaki once did with respect to its online sales: give the nearest stocking dealer its usual margin for each sale. [Update: Several dealers have since told me that Kawi only paid about 3 percent.] I say Kawasaki once did this because it eventually decided to end consumer-direct sales altogether.
Another option for dealer-respecting suppliers is Shopatron, a company that specializes in allowing manufacturers to sell online without cutting out their retailers. Suzuki is just one of Shopatron’s latest clients. Click here for a short article explaining how the system works.
Before I sign off, let me say that there are some legitimate excuses for consumer-direct sales. After all, many small vendors begin by selling their wares to the public, before slowly building a dealer network. There’s a transition period. When that period should end is hard to say.
And even established vendors typically sell directly when they attend the big consumer events like Daytona or Sturgis. I suppose it’s only fair for them to recoup their costs as they market their brands. An exception would be the semi trucks of the major distributors. More than once I’ve confirmed that all such semi sales go through a local dealer.
As inventory levels remain high — and retailers and vendors struggle to survive — excessive discounting is going to tarnish some brands. Similarly, look for more and more vendors to use the economy as an excuse to become your competitor. Don’t take it lying down. Make some noise. Remind your suppliers that barring a few exceptions, the supply chain shouldn’t be broken.
Visit http://Dealernews.com for more blog articles
I have this great story and in the last 48 hours it’s become something I had to share with everyone. It involved a small vendor who works out of a U-Haul, a shop that supports him, and a 65 year old customer who has two scooters on the back of his motorhome who has visited 3 stores and called 6 shops in the Florida panhandle before deciding who could get him the best parts prices to repair his TNG Venice.
My first caller yesterday morning was a store that hadn’t placed an order in 8 months and his total for the year was around twenty dollars. Today he wanted to order another ten in parts. The funny thing is before he ordered he proceeded to tell me how he was slow and there was no business, but he was buying a thousand dollars in parts from some guy working out of a U-Haul and no longer needed MRP or his WPS accounts. I thought it was pretty balsy for someone to say that ( I ignored his comment and I realized you have to take everything with a grain of salt since he just wanted to buy without meeting our minimums) I explained to him that the U-Haul guy was the reason his business was going out of business and his sales were slow. He said and I quote “I don’t care if his mobile U-Haul competes with me, we’ve been here over 5 years, I want price.” The best thing about this quote is how it would haunt him the next day. So before I told him he had to live up to our minimums and that we had spoken to the store ten times this year I proceeded to explain why U-Haul guy was helping destroy his shop of 5 years. Then I told him we could talk about his order.
Now say what you want, but MRP like every company is here to make money. Unlike the U-Haul guy this dealership buys from were not a retailer. I’m not directly competing with the store by selling on Ebay and online direct. U-Haul guy is helping destroy brands since their suggested retail prices are nowhere near where they should be on eBay every morning when he’s on there. He’s also in the same area as the dealer so the dealer thinks he’s being helped all he’s doing is sending the U-Haul guy more business. This is one more clear example of everything that is wrong with the powersports industry right now.
I think part of the reason there is so much desperation out there is because dealers allowed distributors to destroy the market by liquidating bikes at auction, sell online direct, and sell parts to the public. I strongly believe the Chinese importer that sells parts direct to the public for whatever reason has basically cannibalized their own long term growth. Then again this is the type of business decision made by someone only thinking about immediate revenue, immediate gratification, and has no interest in building a brand or worrying about if your client will be here next year.
So any distributor in my position has to think - I have employees and overhead. I pay insurance. The guy that works out of U-Haul or his garage doesn’t have liability insurance, workers comp, property taxes, marketing expenses or provide a website with thousands of parts on there. You’re comparing us to the this is why the fly by night guy that works from the U-Haul who has 200 SKUs and buys from WPS or Parts Unlimited because you don’t have an account there? This guy won’t be here next year and the guy that sells direct might have great revenues, but you will never see any legitimate Honda or Yamaha dealership put a sign up that reads “CheapChineseParts.com” on the window. You can walk into a hundred Kymco or Honda dealers from Argentina to Canada and there might be an MRP sign in the window. So I think we need to look at what bigger companies do to truly answer this dilemma.
I face this every day if I sold direct to the public and hired four or five guys at $8 an hour to slave on the phones I could run three or four dealers out of business next week. I could sit here and I would instantly loose a good client like Scootertronics or Buggy USA. They stock, race, go to the track with scooters or buggies. They would never fly our colors or try to promote the line, because they would know in the back of their head that instead of sending them leads we are taking them.
I know a lot of people criticize FRED FOX and company, but that’s who we aspire to be everyday as we’ve built up MRP from 3,000 SKUs to over 12,000 in the course of 18 months. I can say a million things about DKscooters.com and how it closed, how it drop shipped from a million suppliers cannibalizing scooter dealer sales before it shut down, I can talk about DK selling direct to the public, but let’s talk about the fact that PARTS UNLIMITED is the 400 pound gorilla because they decided it’s not in Lemans' business plan to support each and every dealer out there especially not the guy buying $100 a year or the guy that tells you he can buy from a U-Haul or China. They don’t want the lawnmower shop that buys $200 a year and because of that they have grown and maintained themselves. There are other distributors that look for and cater to the lawnmower shops and to tell you the truth they want to play the volume game. Sell to more small shops at less money like Walmart and do more volume, but all we do is drive down pricepoints which are already unsustainable. They have 300,000 or more SKUs available to them. Sure it might upset smaller shops all the time that they have to buy $5,000 a year to keep an account open, but think about what a brand name means. This is the most difficult thing to explain in an industry where the cost of entry is at an all time low. The guy that invested $5,000 in 40 scooters and opened a store wants the same pricing and same treatment as the Vespa dealer that spent $5,000 on two scooters. The truth is just because it’s scooters they are not the same business plan. Both stores do share one thing right now – THEY BOTH NEED TO REPAIR EVERYTHING TO SURVIVE.
So I put forward the following contention: Can the Vespa shop survive in todays market ( anywhere other than a primary market like NYC or Chicago ) solely on the Vespa – Piaggio franchise. The absolute answer is no. This is now a widely accepted Universal truth. I think this theory is now proven and in today’s market the smart owner is telling their repair center “hey guys we need to start repairing Yamahas and Kymcos as well as Piaggio.” Same applies to the Honda shop that normally wouldn’t repair a SYM or Kymco.
Now the Chinese only dealer is faced with a question and a new contention emerges. As they have struggled and prices are at all time low on new vehicles. The small Chinese only shop has tried to offer better product moving up from Qingi to say CFMOTO or a better 2T scooter like ETON at a higher price point. Still, they think all the parts should cost the same and the bikes are the same. They clearly are not. The new contention should be “as a Chinese only shop should we be repairing more than just inexpensive Chinese scooters?” this owner might take more time to think about this, but the answer is also a resolute yes. Because the shop needs to be able to buy CFMOTO or TNG parts to survive in this market.
So I think my contentions apply directly to the market we face. You have a dealership. You absolutely need a Kymco part, if you are not a Kymco dealer then you have buy it from a Kymco dealer. THIS MAKES SENSE because Kymco is in the business of keeping the brand and business alive, it has a value, THEY ARE NOT MEANT TO BE AT EVERY LOCATION. We took this same business decision and my outlook is the fact that we have a value that sometimes is only realized when someone comes in with a Malaguti scooter or a Keeway ( and Keeway North America discontinued these parts and MRP got them at auction ) and you’re client is desperate for these parts. We come in and save the day and help you make some money. That’s our value. That’s why we have dealers that buy $25,000 a year and are loyal to the brand. They have the business intelligence to not put up website links to direct competitors online on their site. They know the market itself has to be sustainable and for it to be sustainable you cannot take sales away from legitimate stores even online. Dealers have to pay rent, employees, taxes, insurance, and have a million issues every single day. So to those hardworking guys I would be doing them a disservice ever time we sell to the guy that buys $20 a year because they make a strong effort to support us and have helped up acquire all the companies we have in the last 18 months.
So I look at Parts Unlimited and I say yes they are the 400 pound gorilla. I both admire them and want to get in the ring with them. That’s what life is about, if your goal is to hide then don’t sign up for the army. If you want have a franchise read the fine print if you’re going to represent KYMCO then you HAVE to live up to what they ask for, if not don’t do it. Don’t get married and pretend you’re a bachelor.
So back to my caller yesterday I told the client listen at this point you’ve purchased under $50 this year. He said he understood, but that U-HAUL Guy had everything he could ever need and if he needed more he could buy it direct in China online. So I said I can’t in good faith keep you onboard you will have to buy like a Jobber at a higher price or from another store because I have to be fair to my employees, my policies, and my business. He said he didn’t need the part.
Today his wife called. A sixty five year old man had a Venice 49cc that he needed to fix URGENTLY like it was the end of the world since he had dropped it accidentally from the back of his motorhome. She explained to me she didn’t know they hadn’t purchased the minimum on the MRP account and proceeded to tell me this amazing story.
Mr. U-Haul drove into the Motorhome community they service and dropped off flyers to all the motorhomes that he repaired mopeds and scooters ( despite having no license, no location, and doesn’t have a tax ID) The TNG owner had gone to the U-Haul guy and he couldn’t get a quote ( doesn’t have an MRP account) then Mr. U-Haul guy said he would be opening a parts account with MRP next week.
The smart savy customer went to their shop because he needed to leave town this weekend and wanted his scooter running. He told her the story about what Mr U-Haul was doing. They freaked out. They purchased $400 in MRP parts. Turns out everything I predicted, everything I had said was true. Will they stop buying from Mr U-Haul? probably not. Because the powersports industry has a short term memory and now getting screwed by distributors or suppliers is becoming the standard.
Still now they see the value of working with someone that has the parts that Mr. U-Haul cannot get. Now they see the value of working with someone that won’t be driving into the motorhome community taking their clients. It’s a shame it comes to this it really is, but if anything I told them they were only helping build up the guy that would eventually try to take their business. Call it Cassandra’s curse if you will, but this is the state of the industry.
Posted by
kabolWednesday, September 8, 20100
comments
Geriatric Scooter Test Take 1 Testing the NP50 trike 110cc perfect for the old retired school teacher that wants to ride a three wheel ATV engine in the form of a scooter in Miami. This is a Honda 110cc Monkey clone engine three speed semi - automatic with reverse 4 stroke oddity that we found. It's clearly GREY market non DOT non EPA and NOT safe at any speed. ITS VERY UNSAFE so the Scooter Maven will test it so you don't have to. DO NOT RIDE THIS ILLEGAL SCOOTER LEAVE IT UP TO CRAZY PEOPLE LIKE ME. Http://www.mrp-speed.com
