American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 173 December 2013 | Page 24

Following the launch of the 2014 Indian Motorcycle range Krazy Horse became one of just 70 dealerships outside of the US to carry the brand regularly seek each other out at what is primarily an automotive event. While Paul has been expanding his business with the addition of new bikes he expected the move to the new premises to alienate some of his old customers: “One of the things I thought would be a problem after we moved, would be the parts side. I thought it would die off. I thought we would lose the traditional customers we had who bought parts to build their own bikes. I honestly thought they would go to more traditional back street type shops, like we used to be. However, our parts sales have more than doubled. We’ve carried on doing parts for older bikes, and we’ve increased our stock too. People can come in here buy some parts, whereas elsewhere the parts would have to be ordered in and while they’re here they can have breakfast too.” reakfast sales are an area that Paul is keen to explore with plans afoot to open earlier to capture more local trade. “At the moment we open it at nine, but we may start opening an hour earlier to get more breakfast trade from the people who work on the estate around here,” says Paul, commenting about how the café trade is developing. It is a similar story of development for the clothing side of the business too. “Clothing is an area that is growing for us,” says Paul. “Some aspects are making money some are not, but we’re still in our first year of having an ‘actual’ clothing department rather than just selling a few T-shirts and helmets.“ The increased revenue that the clothing sales generate are important for the shop as Paul explains B that it is an area of the shop that is proving popular with customers who may not be from a traditional motorcycle background, but who like the motorcyclist style and look: “People at Goodwood may see us there and then come to the shop and perhaps buy a Belstaff jacket. It’s those sorts of sales that allow us to do what we do. It is almost impossible to make any sort of living just building one-off custom bikes.” It is not just Belstaff that is available in the clothing department. The range includes lines form motorcycle clothing specialists and other lifestyle brands too and includes Red Wing Shoes, Levi’s, Levi’s Vintage Clothing, Dickies, Draggin, Roland Sands, Jofama, Deus, Davida, Premier, Roof and carefully selected items from Ace Cafe London’s StoMoCo and Rockers ranges. ixing an extensive clothing range with a café inside a motorcycle dealership is not the only way that Paul Beamish is trying to redefine the custom motorcycle market in the UK. He has a very different take on building bikes and getting people on board. “The bikes we build for the shop as promotional vehicles are all built in under 200 hours. It’s hard but any more time than that and it’s no longer economically viable. However, we’ve been able to keep all the bikes we’ve built over the years and we use them as display models and demo machines,” says Paul, commenting on the many custom builds on display on the showroom floor. He continues: “People will come along and say I like that bike but M After less than a year Krazy Horse has already reached capacity in its new 9,500sqft premises and is preparing to open a second show room across the road to provide the space it needs for even further expansion I want… and then we’ll build a similar bike, but with subtle changes made to it. It saves us having to modify the original bike and we still have that available as a show piece. “Where else can you go if you want a custom bike but are not sure what style you want and be able to ride a whole range of different styles of custom bikes? If a serious punter comes along and wants to spend the day with us, they can come and ride all of those bikes we’ve got and make an informed choice about whether a Swedish chop, or a Bobber or a cafe racer or a Zero bike is the best option for them. A lot of times people have come along with a definite idea of what they want but after riding a few different styles have completely changed their mind. That is a problem with the custom world. In most cases the buyer doesn’t get to ride the bike until it’s built and paid for and then if it’s not what they thought they wanted it’s simply too late.” t is this sort of choice for the customer that has been a driving force in the development of Krazy Horse. “We have been able to bring large scale dealer features to the custom world. We can offer finance packages now. We can get better insurance rates for customers,” explains Paul talking of the additional benefits of the move to a larger scale operation. “Society is changing and people expect more in every field of life and so we as a custom business have to change too and we have. “When I first started Krazy Horse I never envisioned it would get to this level. When I began to think about the move here, I wanted to create a shop that was not just as good as a Harley dealership, but better. There are some fantastic people in the custom world building some wonderful bikes but the whole scene doesn’t get very well represented. We’ve had first hand experience of that. We could put on a very professional looking display at upmarket events like Goodwood, but then people would turn up at the old shop on the strength of that display and you could see straight away the look of disappointment. It was not what they expected, even though we had a nice clean, tidy shop. If someone is handing over a £10,000 deposit for a full custom build they want the reassurance that you’ll not simply run off with the money, and that was an issue with the old shop. We’ve noticed an improvement in the confidence of our customers since we moved here, as this looks and feels like an upmarket motorcycle dealership.” hen asked how he feels about the way Krazy Horse has grown over the years, from its early days operating out of a barn, through the small high street store to its current site, Paul simply says: “We’re in this business because it is just what we were doing anyway and we’ve just kept on doing that. The shop is now in a position where I guide what it does, but I spend most of my time at my other business. Not because I want to, but I’ve got such a good team of people here now that this place looks after itself. The guys here know what they are doing and have been doing it for years.” I W KRAZY HORSE CUSTOMS Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK Tel: [phone] [email protected] www.krazyhorse.co.uk 24 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - DECEMBER 2013 www.AMDchampionship.com