I'm on the J&P Cycles team. Superstore did merge (kind of). J&P Cycles is opening up to sport bike and will include all motorcycles excluding dirt,atv,utv. The new part #'s are being loaded daily as well as the content machine. Superstore is going to be living in online marketplaces (walmart, amazon etc). MAG decided to shut down motorcycle superstore over a year before chapter 11 was filed. We weren't effected by the chapter 11 at all, in fact we have been gaining marketshare from all online sources. the chapter 11 was filed by MAG and Velocity holdings, who owns us and probably 15 other big name brands (vance and hines, Kuryakyn, roland sands etc.) to include distributors like Tucker rocky. We are being told that it is a debt restructure and that the lien holders are assuming ownership of the company.(it sounds like they bought all of the companies debts when they purchase them and interest payments are about to hit and the growth isn't what they predicted). so far day to day hasn't changed and we have been setting record numbers every month along with heavy hiring. the end of all this mess is set at the end of march. The motorcycle industry is weird right now and trying to find its identity, its not dying but it is changing and companies are trying to stay ahead of the curve.
J&P Cycles moving into the sport market? That's weird. I've been to the Ormond/Daytona location and there was not a single thing in there not directed at cruisers. Even if they sell it there will be a steep learning curve for the staff.
My office is 2 miles from the old Superstore warehouse in Louisville. It was a great place with nice people and killer deals that just happened to be down the street from me. They also contributed to the local motorcycling community. The most perfect setup for this motorcyclist and I rewarded them with thousands of dollars in purchases. Then they shut down the warehouse store and J&P moved in with little fanfare. All that anyone around here knew was that J&P was a Harley/cruiser accessories outfit. That might not be true but that is your stigma in the community. Yep, lots of people are upset about losing the Superstore and blame J&P, so that's the road that you all have to travel. Me, I've spent thousands of dollars with Revzilla/Cycle Gear since the demise.
Sport bike will be online only. Over 80% of our sale come from online, and 10% from the three retail locations (Iowa, Sturgis, Daytona) will continue to serve the American V twin market and events. J&P is the leader for aftermarket Harley, and it will be quite the task to gain that same support for sport. There are many companies out there doing it right and we respect that we many only get a piece: We own v twin, revzilla owns sport. It will be an interesting process as we want to cater to a new demograph and not alienate our core. When MAG acquired both superstore and J&P they moved the headquarters to Dallas, TX which wasn't in favor of many. There is still our main warehouse in Louisville. Then having two companies under one roof and sharing roles, didn't work. Superstore was large and sold a lot, but didn't make money doing it. J&P had no influence of what happened to the superstore name, and it wasn't the most pretty breakup. Now we have all the resources etc. to make a go for sport bikes, so why waste it. There is a lot we want to do to support and get involved with (sportbike) and it will all take time. Hell, most people don't even know that we had sponsored MotoAmerica the last two years.
IMO I believe all retailers (online and storefront) to watch out for Amazon, Wal-Mart and Facebook. Especially Facebook, they have everyone's information, daily updates, pictures, and now will know your spending habits and cater to it.
The editor’s letter in the February Motorcycle Consumer News gives a really thorough walk through of all the mergers, acquisitions, capital bailouts, etc of this whole deal. Short version is that the equity people will now get paid ahead of,the vendors, who may be on the hook for some big numbers. This group controls about half of the mainstream sport bike and cruiser world, and have the very real potential of messing up some brands we all really like. Can’t post a link to the piece unfortunately, as it is behind a paywall.
Elvee, that's a great point and has been our #1 hurdle. I cant speak to the other companies/brands involved, however the courts created a list of all vendors in our system and prioritized them as to which can be paid or not. Our cut off date was 11/15/17, so any open PO before that, will not be paid (by court order). This has damaged some relationships but for the most part all has been resolved or caught up, the but comes and what really sucks is for the small vendors that don't make the "priority" list. I've been in the industry for over ten years and its like giving some of your good friends the finger while you screw them over saying "sorry, please understand".
