Stratstone Claycross - Close at the end of the month!

They're stuck between a rock and a hard place - new bike sales are down 25% (40% for sportsbikes), but exchange rates are making Japanese imports expensive.

No sympathy to be fair - I have bought 12 bikes in the last 10 years 4 of them brand new and everytime I have been raped on the resale (as I expected to be). I am keeping the SV for now and will weather the storm. I know the financial climate is hard but come on adjust your service costs so people like me come to the dealers rather than doing an oil and plug chance themselves to save a small fortune.

Originally Posted by G

Another big midlands dealer down!

They are due to close at the end of the month and are taking no more bike or service orders.

Sad day, they were very competitive on tyres. I bought quite a bit there over the past year or two. My back protector, helmet, tyres.

Awwwwww pants.

I got some leathers from there earlier in the year having just found it and planned to frequent. Now the flipping flip is flipping closing.

Flip.

[G]

Specialone should buy this place if he wants a good set up. Theplace is fantastic and has a good cafe to make money on, loads of parking, great showroom and great service bay.

It was just run by idiots.

They would only let you test ride AFTER you had agreed to buy the bike and had paid a deposit.

Originally Posted by G

Specialone should buy this place if he wants a good set up. Theplace is fantastic and has a good cafe to make money on, loads of parking, great showroom and great service bay.

It was just run by idiots.

They would only let you test ride AFTER you had agreed to buy the bike and had paid a deposit.

I'd been only a couple of time but agree the place is ideal, shame the staff will loose their jobs but the company polices seem a bit odd if that was their carry on.

[G]

It was a very very busy place, so they probably had a lot of timewasters... But their silly policies and bad attitude will have quickly scared off the genuine customers.

They getting better but again...To little to late.

Love to G, but its a bit far away and probably too much money
Im having 2nd thoughts with all these businesses going pete tong

Trouble is i know full well as a dealer that dropping prices and reducing your profit doesnt automatically generate enough of an upturn of custom to offset the loss of turnover and can in quite a few cases end up with the business not being viable to run.

Dealers dont get a choice when it comes to re-selling parts, especially from manufacturers. RRP and margins are pre-set and if you dont make the margin on the part to cover the cost of sales in each department the business then looses money and closes.

It will only get worse. More people want cheap, business then offer that but cant run efficiently on the margins, employ inexperienced staff, cut corners on quality and then the end customer gets a raw deal.

IMHO the UK price wise for new bikes and parts within europe is cheap - just been out to Spain..and nearly choked on my coffee when wandering around the large shop in Jerez!. They are doing well and yet Spain is in a worse reccesion than the UK!

Went past them today and they are gone! Showroom empty, shutters down. Gone!

Originally Posted by Scrawf

Went past them today and they are gone! Showroom empty, shutters down. Gone!

Stratstone are a very large group owned company so id guess if there was no profit being made they would choose to shut the doors. I have no idea on how the rest of their group is performing but it wouldnt be good business sense to offset a poor performing sector with your good one at the moment.