International Dealer News IDN 114 Aug/Sept 2013 | Page 4

• COMMENT • COMMENT • COMMENT • COMMENT • COMMENT • COMMENT • IDN responds to market decline W S ITH effect of this 114th edition, International Dealer News (IDN) is announcing that it is to revert back to six issues a year, on an alternate-monthly basis. Down the years the frequency of IDN has varied. From six editions a year, up to monthly, and various frequency formulas in between. Most recently we had been producing ten editions a year and had hoped to be able to publish each month from this year onwards. However, coincident with an edition in which we present a major review of 35 plus years of Japanese motorcycle manufacturer European export statistics, it is no surprise that we too have had to respond to the same market forces that have been affecting our readers. From franchised dealers and the motorcycle manufacturers they sell for, right through to the parts, accessory and apparel vendors whose products are needed to fuel dealership workshop revenues and power showroom profits through the void left by declining PTW sales, and whose advertising pays the bills to produce IDN, we are all subject to the harsh realities of the present economic climate and ours is an industry where its effects have come on top of multiple additional issues that have been challenging unit sales for years. From licensing and training, though safety and regulatory impacts, the motorcycle industry has been under consistent pressure ever since the mid 1990's when the first EU Motorcycle Multi-Directive hardened up on emissions and noise regulations. ince that time age-related licensing changes, increased training costs and complexity, further emissions and noise tightening, and many other market threats have played out against the background of an industry that has seen sales decline as never before. From a peak around the year 2000, sales stuttered then recovered in the years following, only to now plunge into uncharted waters in terms of new unit salesdecline since the credit crunch, the banking crisis, the recession and, most recently, since the single currency itself started to come under such sustained and still unresolved pressure. With consumer confidence at an all time low, and youth unemployment across Europe at an all time high, the prospects for Europe's motorcycle market have never looked worse. Indeed the statistics we report here in this edition of IDN, especially with regard to the once strategically fundamental performance of the 'Big Four' Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, paints a picture of an industry whose decline in Europe, could be argued, on paper at least, to be bordering on the terminal. Ten to fifteen years ago there were some 10,000 motorcycle dealerships across Europe who held at least some kind of Japanese manufacturer franchise. Relative to the decline in unit sales that number has not yet fallen by anything like as much as it should have done, but based on our own reader database maintenance, and other independent and manufacturer sources, it is now in the region of 7,000 such shops at best. That the number overall is not yet a lot lower ‘now available six times a year’ is due in large part to the many new smaller style stores that have opened up in central and eastern Europe since the early to mid 1990s, and to the fact that ours still remains more of a passion driven market than one fuelled by sentiment-free financial prudence. Whereas the pre-downturn number of franchised Japanese brand dealerships were able to operate from the profits generated by the sale of an average of between 350,000 and 400,000 unit sales a year, the network of Japanese motorcycle franchise stores in Europe received south of 150,000 units last year (the lowest figure since 1976) and the 2013 year-end figure may be as low as 100,000 to 120,000. espite the growing strength (relatively speaking) of European manufacturers such as BMW, Ducati and Triumph, the impact on the market's capital base of losing so many sales so quickly has been dramatic and, as evidenced by the ever decreasing number of parts, accessory and apparel booths at shows such as INTERMOT and EICMA, the knock-on effect, despite the proportionately increased importance of such sales to dealership profits, has been huge. In the case of IDN, as with other consumer and trade motorcycle magazines, that impact has primarily been through the reduced advertising budgets available, and in our case the absence of a cover price or (so far) subscription fee, advertising revenue has been our sole source of income. Therefore, while the digital edition of IDN will continue to be free of charge to all those who wish to make sure they receive the link to each edition (it is always available for online reading or download from the www.idnmag.com website), we are also now going to be introducing a subscription fee for the printed edition of IDN (see details elsewhere in this August/September edition) and stepping up distribution of industry and vendor company and product news through our IDN 'E-Club' service - the oldest and first European motorcycle industry electronic news service. We will, of course, monitor the market closely and review our frequency (back upwards hopefully) if and when conditions improve, however, with 15 years and 114 editions under our belt, the priority is to ensure that the International Dealer News brand continues and, as the only international motorcycle industry magazine in Europe, continues to develop the excellence of market coverage that has become its hard-earned hallmark. There will be no compromise in terms of quality of breadth of reporting, and in an industry which becomes even more international every year, IDN will continue to be an every-increasingly important resource. D Robin Bradley Publisher [email protected]