“ WE ARE EVERYWHERE , THE SHOPS ARE NOT ”
As J & P Cycles approaches its 40th anniversary year in 2019 , company President Zach Parham gives his first interview since its parent company emerged from its reorganization filing . He says that business for the world ’ s largest parts and accessories retailer is “ bigger , better and faster ” than ever , but his remarks about the changing nature of the market have proven prescient – coming before our recent series on the Community Garage movement , and before Harley ’ s “ More Roads ” strategic vision addressed the issue of urban dwelling riders …
When J & P Cycles ’ parent company MAG ( Motorsports Aftermarket Group ) filed for reorganization in the bankruptcy court in November last year , the news sent shockwaves around the market . The primary focus in most of the industry responses was on the impact it would have on industry distributor Tucker Rocky ( now re-branded as Tucker ) and the well-known brand subsidiaries in the group such as Vance & Hines , Performance Machine , Kuryakyn and others . The concern also centered , quite rightly , around the impact on independent vendors that sold to Tucker ,
‘ we had our best ever May ’
Zach Parham , President of J & P Cycles , and son of founders John and Jill Parham
Zach Parham , President of J & P Cycles , ‘ walks the walk ’ and is ideally placed to steer J & P in the direction of ‘ new gen ’ consumers . He did a 3,500 mile round trip to Sturgis on a BMW R nineT
www . AMDchampionship . com and especially the dozens of smaller , typically specialist vendors , for whom the potential hit could be devastating . By the time MAG emerged from the filing in April this year most of the money owed to vendors ( over 90 percent ) had been paid , but there still were many smaller specialists for whom the unpaid debt remained a major setback . The fact that Federal filing regulations prevent any business in such circumstances from repaying all monies owed was of little comfort to those specialists that were left , and still are , struggling with fall-out . Through the entire saga though , there was one “ business unit ” in the MAG portfolio that didn ’ t come into the spotlight quite so intensively , which , given that technically speaking J & P Cycles is the world ’ s largest motorcycle parts and accessory retailer and a major customer for a large proportion of industry vendors , including those smaller specialists , was a surprise . The primary reason was that while the turnover and business model of MAG ’ s other foray into retail channel ownership hasn ’ t worked out ( Motorcycle Superstore , bought by MAG in 2012 ), J & P , as a business , had the ‘ hinterland ’, footprint , heritage and control over its ‘ traffic ’ to largely resist the decline in industry sales .
‘ we are a retailer , not a distributor ’
The decline that started a decade ago with the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and after a brief 24 months of growth three years later , continued in the 48 months following Lacy Diversified ’ s acquisition of MAG in 2014 , and through the recent filing process .
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - SEPTEMBER 2018 27