These sort of "franchise" operations never seem to last the course. P&H Crawley being one such example.
Funny that. I was booked in for an MoT at Crawley today and I got a call this morning saying the system was down!!!!! Sounded strange when they called.
If I am not mistaken Superbike Factory took over P&H after their demise. Seems as if the business model is the issue here, as opposed to the operator. "Carnell" was another perfect candidate of this ill conceived formula.
I found Superbike factory a bit odd… I visited both Macclesfield and Donington, thousands of bikes, but…. Nothing jumped out at me as the one I wanted. By comparison popped into Ducati Manchester while on route to the airport for a holiday, 10mins… deposit paid on the Enduro SB factory to me seemed to lack something ..
I attempted to buy my first bike from them in Macclesfield four years ago. I paid a deposit of I think £500 for a BMW F800R and was told it would be ready within 14 days. Of course it wasn’t, I called them up and got some kind of “oh it’s really busy, the season has just started” (it was late June), got fed up and got my deposit back. Bought my first Ducati from the old Stoke place, rest is history. still liked to go in and look at the bikes, was always amazed at how they never seemed to make any effort to clean them before putting them on the show floor. Some of the sales staff sounded a bit like apprentice candidates with their headset on lounging at their desks being a bit slick. I just got the feeling it was never going to last forever and I’m surprised it carried on as long as it did.
Can’t say I’m surprised. Writing was on the wall a year ago. Interesting to see what gets resurrected in the near term.
Just heard that SBF have applied to file for administration, a quick Google search shows an official looking website confirming the notice https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/news/1050835-superbike-factory-noi-administration/
“built its reputation as a disruptor in a traditionally fragmented, dealer-led market.” Well in my experience I don’t mind paying a bit more to a dedicated Ducati dealer or a trad old school used bike dealer who actually care about their customers than a stack em high sell em cheap box shifter for the sake of saving 50p
No surprise really. Motorcycling has an aging demographic, UK roads are dangerously unrideable because of potholes and even when they’re properly surfaced, travelling along them is a tiresome and nerve-racking exercise due to the all-seeing eye of the nanny state.
