International Dealer News IDN 115 Oct/Nov 2013 | Page 4

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Someone is selling - is it you?
ITH INTERMOT having just released their exhibitor and
visitor prospectus and schedule for 2014 (Cologne,
Germany, October 1st – 5th) this would generally be a time
in the biennial market cycle when the Milan show (EICMA) would be
the hot topic among vendors in Europe as the industry prepares for
the expo in November (5th-10th).
However, whilst Milan will still nonetheless see the largest broad-based
motorcycle industry gathering of the year, and a still massive investment in vendor
booths and associated expo costs, the sad truth is that preparing this pre-EICMA
edition of IDN has revealed that more parts, accessory, technical and apparel
vendors than ever before have abandoned the show as marketing budgets
(indeed all budgets) continue to be squeezed.
As reported in this edition of IDN, the Italian
motorcycle market, while remaining the largest in
Europe, continues its relentless decline, with total
PTW sales for the full year likely to have declined to
not much more than one million units from the near
three million recorded as recently as 2007.
The particularly acute downward pressure on
motorcycle, scooter and moped sales seen in
Southern Europe in general in the past four years has been unprecedented.
Matched as it is by the pan-European decline in the sale of Japanese-made
motorcycles from the glorious peaks of years past, market sentiment as the
industry approaches EICMA, Europe’s other major general-purpose OE-driven
shows and the new model launch season, is at best muted.
As the figures released by ACEM at the end of September suggest, the best
news headlines that anybody is able to latch onto currently are that maybe,
possibly, perhaps, there are signs of a slowing in sales decline in some of the
larger countries and that, maybe, possibly, perhaps motorcycle sales are poised
to bottom-out sooner than scooters and small cc PTW units.
iven the relative retail value of larger displacement machines for Europe’s
dealer network, and the greater role their riders play in fuelling parts,
accessory and apparel sales then maybe, just maybe, 2014 might see the
aftermarket leading whatever sense of recovery there is to be had – a reverse of
what has been seen in historic market decline/growth cycles.
There is a received wisdom in the motorcycle industry that when times are
hard and new unit sales in decline, aftermarket parts and accessory sales prosper,
relatively speaking, as consumers delay new model spending in preference for
increasing used model ownership longevity.
In parallel with this, another early indicator of any pending recovery in the
industry is used unit values and dealership workshop revenues.
Whilst there is no question that service diaries remain full, and that workshop
profits have been the primary way in which most motorcycle dealerships
(franchised and independent) have been able to keep the lights on, the story
where used motorcycle values is concerned remains inconsistent.
There does not yet in this painfully extended downturn appear to have been
any evidence of the so-called received wisdom giving buoyancy to parts and
accessory sales, and with youth unemployment across all of Europe, but especially

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in Southern Europe, now threatening to leave us with an entire lost generation
of consumers to fuel the spending median of our mid-40s demographic, it is
going to take an awful lot of “urban mobility” to dig us out of this hole.
In addition to being shocked at the number of parts and accessory vendors
and brands who have abandoned their traditional investment at Milan, so far
this season it is also striking that new product research and design also appears
to have stalled.
t may well be that the rather more trade-oriented, large displacement,
technical, and international environment that INTERMOT delivers will see the
industry wearing its game-face twelve months from now, but I have to say that
our canvass for product innovation in advance of this year’s Milan show has
yielded thin pickings.
Congratulations to those companies who are
stepping up to the plate – because for sure and
certain you are the ones who will emerge from the
downturn in better shape than your competitors.
It is an established and recorded fact that in all
downturns during the last 80 plus years any survey
of market leadership, indeed of any kind of sales
growth, achieved as market recovery sets in has
always revealed a direct correlation between the essential twin pillars of
downturn survival and post-recession profile – namely research and design
investment and branding and marketing spend.
When times are hard, it is all too easy for consumers and those in the
distribution channels between manufacturers and the end user to assume that
there simply is not going to be much in the way of new and creative offers with
which excitement and enthusiasm can be built.
t is also all too easy for buyers to simply forget that a vendor or brand exists
or is still in business. It is a sad marketing truth that if you think the sell-by
date of groceries is short, the shelf life of brand profile and values is frighteningly
brief.
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