Goes bust unless it’s a private equity venture or many tech ones. They seem to attract millions in funding for delivering very little… but better for laundering money probably
Hinckley was the Suzuki main dealer, they took it over from Arnolds in Leicester, but, there is also Clive Castledines in Wigston as a Suzuki main dealer, so, not too far to travel
A few years ago, they were Suzuki and Aprilia, when Completely took the Suzuki dealership, Arnold's converted part of their Burton Yamaha dealership to incorporate Aprilia, i presumed that they had closed their Leicester store, but, I have heard that it is still open as Aprilia, I will have a ride/drive by there one day, and take a look Google street view (images from a year ago) shows it as Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Vespa and Piaggio now, but, they sold those there when they had Suzuki too
I have been a long term customer of Abergele Ducati and triumph then moved to the closer Chester triumph dealership, but I am surprised how there statement of a bad summer has affected them until I checked out their public accounts, they have been clearing the bank end of every year leaving in 2 weeks worth of costs, then have nothing to cover the slow months, they have been greedy and showy sponsoring a race team, living on pure vanity. I hope the dealers get taken over and retain as many of the staff as possible.
They're leaving something of a vaccum in Gloucester. Apart from Frasers (Suzuki and Aprilia) and Cheltenham Triumph there are no franchised dealers remaining locally that I can think of. With Ducati Worcester gone nearest Ducati dealer is Riders of Bristol.
Raising hackles on here no doubt, but isn’t it the retail expectations of the motorcycle buying public that is the root cause of this sequence of events, with a bit of unfortunate timing in relation to uncontrollable world events to top it off ? Some are painting this family as the villains, but really, what you buy, where you buy it, how much you will pay and how much you allow the dealer to make on the deal has driven all of this. The sell-out of struggling small independents, the consolidation to big multi-franchise groups, and their recent struggle / demise when the cost of borrowing money consistently exceeded the profit made on sales was all in response to consumer behaviour. The spend on BSB as advertising was an attempt to increase brand pull to stay in business in hard times, not what pulled them over the edge.
Arguably though most of those small businesses wouldn’t have been looking to sell if they were making good money. It’s sad none the less
Agree if they didn’t take all the money out each year. As everyone knows, cash flow is king and, if as described above, they starved the business of a chance to weather s storm
I was at the classic show in Stafford Yesterday and the average age was well over mine (early 50s), not surprising you may think as it’s the ‘classic show’ but that is also true if I head over to Matlock or Bridgnorth. For many reasons there aren’t the volumes of younger people getting into bikes and that has been reflected in dealership numbers. When I grew up in Derby there were at least ten bike shops within a 5-8 mile radius from main dealers to decent sized second hand places, I think there are 2 now. The other big change is from a means of transport to a hobby, while it’s been a big part of biking for decades to ride as fun as well as transport, the shift to hobby only riding has been been massive since the 80s. The effect of this is that if money is tighter people don’t need to buy a new bike, and maybe even sell what they have. All this affects the dealers sales. Add to that out love of buying as cheap as possible online and the sundry sales or oil, chains, bulbs etc etc must have plummeted. I went to my local Suzuki dealer last year looking for fork oil and you would thought I was talking a foreign language judging by the response of the guy in the sales dept. I just wonder what the market will look like in 20 years time as think at least 30% of present bikers will be off bikes by then due to old age, and possibly as high as 50-60%.
This is one of the reasons motogp is now running in many Eastern countries. Asia is a big market for two wheels…also why there is a trend towards lower capacity machines. My mate called it just recently, we (the 50 somethings) have lived through a halcyon age for motorcycling! As we die, become decrepit, and as new rules and restrictions come in for a license…just watch what we have known change even more. Esp in the UK. There was another thread recently where I and others posted about Westgate road in Newcastle (the real Newcastle) What a change. From how many? motorcycle shops and dealers to maybe one on ‘the hill’. It used to be virtually a day out. Greasy breakfast with mates. In to all of the shops. Drool over the latest exotica. Maybe buy some gloves…then a ride out in the borders. All gone.
I don’t think we have any dealerships left near Stourport. Both Ducati and Kawasaki Worcester were owned by CM. Street bike in Halesowen who were Triumph have also gone, the Motorcycle Mart in Kidderminster closed a couple of years ago because no one wanted to buy it (so I was told) the Mart at one time were Yamaha Honda and Suzuki. The nearest Ducati dealer is now Coventry. I don’t think CM will be the last either, motorcycling is on the decline. Which is sad
While having my bike serviced two months ago I was talking to the owner who was getting rid of Kawasaki as he said he couldn’t give them away with the ‘bigger’ or multi franchise dealers selling them at a loss and hoping that their backend money would make them break even but he said it wasn’t working and he expected quite a few dealers both big and small to close before the year was out. How right he was and maybe this is just the start. He even said Mr Kawasaki ( Chis Walker ) was really struggling with Kawasaki sales and was tempted to get rid of the franchise.
Online sales to dealers here in the UK and afar such as AliExpress/Temu with low overheads, business rates have killed the local dealers who used to rely on bike peripheral sales for foot fall. Bike sales alone don’t generate enough revenue for big showrooms and manufacturer’s demands for flashy displays and c number of machines on display.
It’s not just motorcycle dealerships it’s true of most retail outlets. Go into any town outside the big cities and the centres are all dying. Online sales have killed most retail opportunities. The world changes and evolves all the time. It’s nothing new.
