As we go the dealer expo we keep talking about the fact that the industry has been on a roller coaster ride the last two years. I keep thinking the industry has been on a roller coaster ride the last ten and it happens to be the ten when I started. Frankly speaking before going into the Dealer Expo I look at the last twenty years of the US motorcycle industry and what comes up must come down, ten years of growth are unsustainable.
When we started back in October 2000 we were selling parts for scooters for all the modern European brands. Our former establishment had focused on scooters since 1996 much longer than many of the newer companies now dedicated to the retail sector. We sold parts for scooters at a local level, but soon it became a regional thing. This is in the time before youtube, facebook, twitter, or countless Chinese companies coming into the market direct. Before big and small companies competed with guys working out of their garages for the same consumer sales online. Before price became the biggest factor in the powersports industry.
Eventually we got out of the retail location because it wasn't fair to the local dealers who would buy vehicles and parts from us. It's pretty obvious we could always undercut them. Eventually the internet came into play and in the last few years more and more dealers have woken up to the fact that the internet has cut into their profits, but they have been helpless to stop it, worse they buy from competitors for they are content to merely be service centers. Something nobody in the business would have foreseen ten years ago.
The last two years we've grown thanks to acquisition. Several of our former clients or people we knew in the business eventually became competitors. It's a funny thing really. That's capitalism you can't take it personally. United Motors at one point was a client of MRP buying up our racing parts until they tried copying us and I had to stop selling to them, little did I know five years later we would buy them. Companies like Powersports Factory Scooters PFS aka Yamati who simply sent our original parts back in 2006 to different suppliers and copied them outright went out of business. We now service their dealers and sell them Benelli scooter parts and parts for their Yamati scooters. So we grew organically, they do say imitation is the best form of flattery, bigger more established distributors approached our suppliers, emulated ideas, all the while we were accumulating the largest cash of 150cc four stroke, 49cc two stroke, 50cc four strokes aka the GY6 50 - QMB139, and 250cc parts. Nobody in the business really invented scooters or scooter parts, this is a segment like any other industry, but there is enough drama and suspense to fill ten novels. Everyone thinks everyone else is making a buck so if I buy parts from them today maybe tomorrow I will compete with them seemed to be the mantra for a long time.
We ended up covering it all even for companies that closed like Tank, United Motors, CPI, Qingqi Miami, Motorsports of Miami, Geely formerly Diamo, Lifan distributors, Wangye, more than anyone could have expected. Anyone that has survived the last two years has my full respect. We continue to strive to be the best place to buy parts for scooters for the dealers without resorting to undercutting them. Many distributors have flat out gone direct and that seems to be the trend in the business. We all have to go retail because the dealers have no money. It's a sad state of events and probably one that will be up for discussion at the Dealer Expo 2011 this year.
We built up the largest Selection for Chinese & Asian Scooter Parts at MRP http://www.mrp-speed.com
When we started back in October 2000 we were selling parts for scooters for all the modern European brands. Our former establishment had focused on scooters since 1996 much longer than many of the newer companies now dedicated to the retail sector. We sold parts for scooters at a local level, but soon it became a regional thing. This is in the time before youtube, facebook, twitter, or countless Chinese companies coming into the market direct. Before big and small companies competed with guys working out of their garages for the same consumer sales online. Before price became the biggest factor in the powersports industry.
Eventually we got out of the retail location because it wasn't fair to the local dealers who would buy vehicles and parts from us. It's pretty obvious we could always undercut them. Eventually the internet came into play and in the last few years more and more dealers have woken up to the fact that the internet has cut into their profits, but they have been helpless to stop it, worse they buy from competitors for they are content to merely be service centers. Something nobody in the business would have foreseen ten years ago.
The last two years we've grown thanks to acquisition. Several of our former clients or people we knew in the business eventually became competitors. It's a funny thing really. That's capitalism you can't take it personally. United Motors at one point was a client of MRP buying up our racing parts until they tried copying us and I had to stop selling to them, little did I know five years later we would buy them. Companies like Powersports Factory Scooters PFS aka Yamati who simply sent our original parts back in 2006 to different suppliers and copied them outright went out of business. We now service their dealers and sell them Benelli scooter parts and parts for their Yamati scooters. So we grew organically, they do say imitation is the best form of flattery, bigger more established distributors approached our suppliers, emulated ideas, all the while we were accumulating the largest cash of 150cc four stroke, 49cc two stroke, 50cc four strokes aka the GY6 50 - QMB139, and 250cc parts. Nobody in the business really invented scooters or scooter parts, this is a segment like any other industry, but there is enough drama and suspense to fill ten novels. Everyone thinks everyone else is making a buck so if I buy parts from them today maybe tomorrow I will compete with them seemed to be the mantra for a long time.
We ended up covering it all even for companies that closed like Tank, United Motors, CPI, Qingqi Miami, Motorsports of Miami, Geely formerly Diamo, Lifan distributors, Wangye, more than anyone could have expected. Anyone that has survived the last two years has my full respect. We continue to strive to be the best place to buy parts for scooters for the dealers without resorting to undercutting them. Many distributors have flat out gone direct and that seems to be the trend in the business. We all have to go retail because the dealers have no money. It's a sad state of events and probably one that will be up for discussion at the Dealer Expo 2011 this year.
We built up the largest Selection for Chinese & Asian Scooter Parts at MRP http://www.mrp-speed.com
No comments:
Post a Comment