Hein Gericke :(

Thats a real shame to hear the guys in the Glasgow branch are really nice and good to deal with.

 

That's a facker!... Specially with vouchers this time of year!...took me an age to get anything back from Zavvi the gits!

 

You'd have thought they would've learned from the first one.

 

I thought HG was a money laundering exercise.

 

Its a shame if it goes - the guys in Leeds were really nice guys and the gear I bought a couple of months ago is brilliant - really hope they can sort it out

 

Got to be a reason why the business model is failing thou

 

Because there are too many people trying to have a share of a massively reduced pie! Seriously there are 10's of independent dealers closing every week, had to be the case that the big dealers with expensive showrooms would at some point struggle.

 

That's real shame, the branch in Oxford is staffed some really nice genuinely helpful people and was a regular stop on my Sunday rideouts. I think the recent woes of HG has also affected their brand, which is a shame as they make some very good stuff.

 

Yep, a friend is a rep in the trade and he is going to at least 1 or 2 dealers a week and taking all the stock back because they are closing, it's a really sad state at the mo. The government aren't helping to encourage new bikers to be honest, I don't disagree with A2 but I disagree with having to retest to get a bigger bike.

For example, often we get into bikes because of a dream bike, for me it was a Ducati 748/916, I did my test, rode a zxr400 for 3 years so that my NCD had built up and also my licence had derestricted from the 33hp and then I got one. What if someone had said to me that I probably had £1500 worth of tests and lessons to get to that point, probably wouldn't have bothered.

 

I agree Phil, I did my direct access this year and you have to be pretty motivated (and well off!) to ride a motorcycle to go through it, it's expensive, time consuming and the pass rate is low. A poor sod who did his A2 Practical test on the same day as I did my A1 didn't even realise he would have to take the whole lot again to get his A1 licence, he was pretty cheesed off and I bet he won't bother and then drift away from bikes.

 

I'm sure it's been covered elsewhere but the dealers are hating this, the industry is being squeezed, I guess in part there are more and more 'free road tax' 400 million MPG cars being sold that are probably bridging the cost benefits of riding a motorcycle. I am sure it's a combination of factors.

On the plus side there are some tiny one-man bands out there starting up who know there product inside out and have very carefully selected little premises that they are squeezed into that are performing better than ever selling really premium brands, perhaps the 'greed' of the big chains are just causing issues now.

 

There other big problem is they don't sell bikes so they never get any spur of the moment sales from customers who may have gone to the bike shop for a nose around or a coffee. Whereas a lot of things bought from the dealers are because you were there at the time maybe even looking at something else. I guess only the strongest will survive the current situation the others will go the same way as George White and many more sadly.

 

It's all very sad. I remember the first time I visited HG - it would have been their Bristol store, and I could not believe how so much good stuff (and the catalogue!) could all be in one place... and that there were other branches. And that was at a time when it was still relatively easy to get a full licence, insurance was a minor cost, etc. And before the likes of HG appeared it had always been a matter of shops in grimy parts of town (not that the HG branches were in smart places necessarily) - worth making a journey to get a helmet at a discount, waxed cotton overmitts or whatever. What's strange is how, as the number of potential motorcyclists has fallen, due especially to licence restrictions, but also insurance costs and a general rsik-aversion culture, the clothing brands and stores have got bigger. I guess it hit the top, and now it's downhill... I believe J&S have had some ups and downs too, and like HG I have always found their stores a pleasure to do business with.

What's especially depressing is the way there is, to me, so much good useful stuff in a store like HG, but drop into an Apple Store and the turnover (and especially profit) must be vast, yet much of the content is pointless. With a seemingly limitless number of customers all prepared to pay top whack just for little holders and bags for iPhones - it must be enough to make those in the motorcycle trade weep.

 

Last time I went there I was served by a lass with a truly epic chest

 

I bought a set of Goretex textiles there over 5 years ago, they're still going strong, so I suppose if you do great clothing that doesn't wear out, it doesn't need changing.

 

Company policy maybe ? Based on the 2 stores I went in after they first went into administration anyway .

 

I reckon you could be right. The Slough store had a couple of babes working there too.

 

I've been working on Big Yellow Storage places recently, and the amount of trade that goes on in these places has to be seen to be believed. I met a young Asian lad who was selling wines online; he rented a unit at about £100 a week and spent about 3 hours a day in there stacking/packing/shipping, and he rented a tiny office from them for peanuts, on which he paid his rates - which were similarly small. He reckoned he worked about 5 hours a day and made a bloody good living from it.

Compare that to a wine shop where they're open all hours, pay stupid amounts of rent and rates and have to pay staff to man the shop.