Sad thing is, she may have given up a decent job to go there thinking it would be a good move , I hope she and all the staff find new jobs real soon.
There’s been rumours around the trade for a while now. Staff getting laid off, remaining staff on crap OTE salaries etc. anyone’s guess. The bikes weren’t prep’d at all. Some tidied up with used parts. Buy in cheap, spend nothing on them, sell them on cheap on high rate finance…….. Don’t know if “We buy any bike” is going down with them? There was a strong connection as that was where most of the stock came from. I’ve had a few thru shop over the past few years. Some were ok, most were rubbish. Some shouldn’t have had a mot, some I told the owners to return.. they weren’t roadworthy. They had no interest in sorting them out. Put back in stock and resold until someone didn’t complain? They filled a gap in the market, but I don’t think they’ll be missed. Trade will be flooded with cheap bikes though for an while, especially running up to autumn and season end. Hopefully doesn’t knock values of genuinely good, decent bikes.
I was talking about this with mates from the local club, one knows people who work there and they are looking to stay open. Hope they manage it. Good run out from here.
There's a guy on U-TUBE reckons that the blowback from the finance scandals and "rewards" to dealer and salesmen has contributed to their woes as the big finance houses are becoming much more choosy about who they lend money to and what companies they operate through. In a former life I used to sell "nearly new" cars; the stack em high and sell them cheap philosophy similar to SBF's business M/O. and I can tell you that I made a significant amount of income from selling finance packages at well above base, more so that I made from actually selling the car. However, the pressure to do so was relentless, so much so that after a few years I moved on as I got tired of ripping unsuspecting/unaware/naive folks off; it literally gave me sleepless nights! So it stands to reason that SPF will have seen a significant fall in easy revenue since the days of easily available chucky to anybody with a pulse are over. They probably cut their margins on the bikes to facilitate that revenue stream to make them look more attractive at the front end knowing they would claw it back on bonuses and rewards from the big finance houses. Now they can't suddenly raise the prices on the bikes without scaring away customers; catch 22.
These stack em high places usually only ever exist on huge borrowings. Once those borrowings come to be renewed they need to be making good money otherwise finance companies increase this interest rates and on the big borrowings involved it usually kills any chance of profit. I’ve no idea why finance companies keep lending to these companies as the business plan hardly ever works.
You’re referring to the cases concerning secret commissions. I was involved in some of them a few years ago.
It is said they were flogging stock with as little as £600 mark up, that is totally unsustainable, Over £100 of that will be VAT.
I found them brilliant to deal with. Genuinely nice and kind, and bought a lovely bike from there. I hope the Macclesfield branch can remain open. They expanded very quickly though. I suspect that did for them. The Macclesfield showroom is absolutely mighty. Thousands of bikes to peruse and no pressure.
A friend of mine sold his bike to them recently. They paid him top money. More than he was asking privately and had no takers. Go figure.
Wasn't aware of this, but had been considering a couple of Scramblers they had at Macclesfield, but this news brings the "Sorry mate, but all our computer systems are down" story I got when I went over there the other day into a new light. Perhaps I'll take a step back.
If they were desperate for stock maybe they could make a loss on the purchase price if they could make it up selling the finance?
