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Barney
SouthWestThePoshBit,
United Kingdom
Posts: 4,840
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
25 Jul 2008 19:14 |
My mate had a letter from them saying they were not happy with the direction the factory were going and as such had decided to part company with the Triumph brand.
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Spondon****
Boabekistan,
Australia
Posts: 3,945
Enthusiast
26 Jul 2008 08:19 |
Oh well, plenty more willing to jump in I guess. You can't please everyone.
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Jackie
BEDS,
United Kingdom
Posts: 8
Enthusiast
26 Jul 2008 16:33 |
Without a doubt others will be willing to take on the Brand. The products are good, and on the face of it, profitable.
However surely it's a bit of a worry when good and reputable Dealers are parting company with the factory due to their apparent aggressive Policy.
It’s likely that the U.K at least will end up with a small network of Solus only Dealers, selling ONLY Triumph products- so less choice for the consumer (i.e. us) in the future.
There is already a noticeable increase in Multi Branch owners, again less choice and variety. The history in the UK points to a reduction of service when this happens- Carnells (later Riossi), Motor cycle City and the like all failed due to lack of controls and low customer service.
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Barney
SouthWestThePoshBit,
United Kingdom
Posts: 4,840
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
26 Jul 2008 17:14 |
The strange thing is Action have spent a lot of money updating their showroom to tie in with triumph brand image.
If they were going to go you think it would have been before that.
Must be something else.
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SteveD
Wokingham,
United Kingdom
Posts: 113
Sprint ST (99-01)
26 Jul 2008 21:16 |
It's probably the solus bit.
To get really big and make real money in this business you have to have multi-franchise...
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Spondon****
Boabekistan,
Australia
Posts: 3,945
Enthusiast
26 Jul 2008 23:00 |
I'm not sure why something like this is viewed as the end of the world as we know it, the sky is falling etc ? Triumph seem to be going from strength to strength, they are selling more bikes and making more money to develop more bikes. Like I said they wont please everyone but no-one will.
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Barney
SouthWestThePoshBit,
United Kingdom
Posts: 4,840
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
27 Jul 2008 09:35 |
[edited]:
Spondon tis not the end of the world, but over here in the UK there are quite a few well known dealers who have been with Triumph from the relaunch in the 90's that have left the brand which seems strange if things are so rosy.
It's most likely because the UK now only accounts for 18% of world wide sales.
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Cantbearsed
wolverhampton,
United Kingdom
Posts: 160
Enthusiast
27 Jul 2008 10:21 |
Is this the Action M/C in Redditch?
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Barney
SouthWestThePoshBit,
United Kingdom
Posts: 4,840
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
27 Jul 2008 12:29 |
It's the only one I know of.
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Blizzard
Coventry,
United Kingdom
Posts: 24,746
Premier Member
Daytona 955i (04->)
27 Jul 2008 18:47 |
Yes it is. Got an e-mail from them this weekend.
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Rob BBTB
Birmingham,
United Kingdom
Posts: 24,370
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
27 Jul 2008 21:38 |
It remains to be seen, how effective these new dealers are..
I do know that Action have been selling an ever increasing number of Triumphs since about 2000, have a very active RAT group and have a large number of repeat customers.
Seems strange if there's no place for them in Triumphs future.
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Barney
SouthWestThePoshBit,
United Kingdom
Posts: 4,840
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
27 Jul 2008 22:03 |
[edited]:
This is my point Rob it seemed like a pro active dealer ticking all the right boxes
So why and who's next?
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Bob Southgate
London,
United Kingdom
Posts: 681
Sprint ST (02-04)
29 Jul 2008 16:52 |
Just like Boyer Racing. They were meeting the sales targets, had a good team of mechanics and front of house staff and they knew their stuff, but Triumph pulled the franchise. You can understand the plug being pulled if a dealer is not performing, but it's lunacy to drop dealers who have a good reputation and provide excellent service.
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Blizzard
Coventry,
United Kingdom
Posts: 24,746
Premier Member
Daytona 955i (04->)
29 Jul 2008 17:55 |
Triumph didn't pull the franchise, Action dropped it.
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John Nelson
Coventry,
United Kingdom
Posts: 699
Tiger (01-06)
29 Jul 2008 21:53 |
"Triumph didn't pull the franchise, Action dropped it."
But WHY?
Don't know the detail on this one but the dealer I got my present Tiger from were pressed by Triumph to go solus.
They chose and went solus Yamaha.
Whose choice was that realy?
Triumph think that they are big enough to have solus dealers. Not all of their dealers seem to agree.
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Barney
SouthWestThePoshBit,
United Kingdom
Posts: 4,840
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
29 Jul 2008 22:07 |
I'm pretty sure they applied a lot pressure on my dealer Bridge to set up a shop that was solus.
They wouldn't play ball and as they are the second biggest dealer sales wise in the country they won the day but a large section of ther showroom is dedicated Triumph.
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Rob BBTB
Birmingham,
United Kingdom
Posts: 24,370
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
30 Jul 2008 10:37 |
Action sell a range of scooters aswell as Triumphs.
Apparently Triumph were insisting these were dropped.
Can't see the logic myself. The scooters were no competition to the Triumphs, and added another source of business for the dealer.
Presumably they also dragged in new customers, who may potentially become Triumph owners sometime in the future.
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Cantbearsed
wolverhampton,
United Kingdom
Posts: 160
Enthusiast
30 Jul 2008 11:03 |
Same happened to BCM. Mind you, they were shit. I suppose Hinkley want each showroom to be like a Harley dealers, no chinese 125's cluttering the place up.
Although, they are quite happy to put Thai 900's in there.......
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Berlin84
Dresden, Sachsen,
Germany
Posts: 15,953
Premier Member
Sprint RS (02-05)
30 Jul 2008 11:21 |
It's a business that Triumph wish to pursue; unfortunatley it could also work against them. It's up to Triumph to take itself in the direction they choose. But as you say it doesn't help the customer!
Maybe Triumph in some of their marketing descisions have been reading up the old handbooks from the Meridian days! 
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Rob BBTB
Birmingham,
United Kingdom
Posts: 24,370
Premier Member
Sprint ST (05->)
30 Jul 2008 12:53 |
In fairness, while I think there's room for different types/sizes of dealership, there's a huge difference between Hinkley and Meriden.
I first got into bikes during the days of the Meriden Coop, and there's no way I'd have spent any of my hard-earned on their products, at that time.
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Narna
In a tent on Eigg,
United Kingdom
Posts: 18,837
Premier Member
Daytona T595 (97-98)
31 Jul 2008 17:11 |
A fair few years ago I worked for a Lotus dealer, we took on the Proton franchise as well for a short while, until Lotus insisted we dropped it because it didn't fir the image.....must have been some red faces when Proton bought Lotus a couple of years later..
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gene gard
omaha,
USA
Posts: 80
Speed Triple (05->)
02 Aug 2008 22:56 |
Triumph is a reasonbly good company to work with, however they have alot of multi dealers in the states and it hurts Triumph only franchises because these dealers have a habit of dumping bikes on the market at low prices because they have another revenue source. Also Triumph is pushing for dealer to upgrade to their store fixtures and that is a hefty investment. Lastly Triumph is slow to update and bring new models to market, so interest peaks and valleys rather sharply. I personally like my Triumphs, but I had wished for more out of the 2009 model year.
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Tim Challenger
Linz,
Austria
Posts: 1,061
Daytona T595 (97-98)
03 Aug 2008 15:16 |
undefined:
But as you say it doesn't help the customer! |
... and as it's the customer, and ONLY the customer that keeps the company going ...
Over here, where Ducati have always been good sellers, Ducati solus dealers last about 2 years then fold. My Triumph - who has been with Triumph from the relaunch - recently took on the Kawasaki franchise (Kawa tried to make him dump Triumph as well). If he has to stop selling Triumphs, then Triumph have lost me as a customer.
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Spondon****
Boabekistan,
Australia
Posts: 3,945
Enthusiast
03 Aug 2008 23:04 |
So you are saying if Kawasaki force him to drop Triumph you wont buy another Triumph ? It's a bit of a no win for Triumph really, THEY get dumped from a dealers and you penalise THEM.
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Bob Southgate
London,
United Kingdom
Posts: 681
Sprint ST (02-04)
04 Aug 2008 16:52 |
The reason why Triumph could lose Tim as a customer could be that if the Kawa dealer drops Triumph that he will have to travel miles to get to the next nearest Triumph dealer, and he wouldn't want to do that.
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Charley Boorman's Chunky Sibling
Wiltshire,
United Kingdom
Posts: 28,657
Premier Member
Speed Triple (95-96)
05 Aug 2008 09:34 |
You've got to have an exceptionally strong brand and very loyal customer base (H-D springs to mind) if you are prepared to drop dealers and have dealers drop you
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Tim Challenger
Linz,
Austria
Posts: 1,061
Daytona T595 (97-98)
05 Aug 2008 15:30 |
Ah, what I meant was not that Kawa would make him drop Triumph - they didn't, as he has both (plus a few other smaller, esoteric marques). But that if Triumph make him go solus I think he'll probably drop Triumph. I'm only guessing though, even if it came to that.
Assuming the other dealers stay Triumph I'd have to ride 2 hours each way. There's no way I'm going to buy a bike where the dealer's that far away.
Ironically enough, my dealer took over the Kawa franchise as the previous Kawa-only dealer went out of business.
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