George White turned over 25m and lost a fair amount of money in doing so, in fact they had been losing money for some time. In any other business that level of turnover would be expected to provide a half decent profit otherwise why bother to open the doors. Unfortunately this is the reality of selling motorcycles, at there is a tiny profit margin on the full retail price and virtually zero on the discounted margins they operated on so their demise was a matter of when not if. An independant dealer who loved motorcycles might see it as a worthwhile enjoyable business to be in,however he or she would probably earn more as a plumber in truth. Customers want the best possible levels of aftercare and service and rightly so, yet unlike the car business it's expected to be at a low hourly rate so it's £ hardly worth investing in a decent workshop. Investing a large sum of money in the hope of earning a few pounds does not make any sense, and expecting that any of the major brands would be loyal to their hardworking dealers would be a mistake. I knew a Suzuki dealer who had been loyal to the brand for over 20 years - George White opened in Oxford, supplied by Suzuki despite them knowing it would wreck the existing dealers business overnight,then a few months later GW decided to close the new outlet down as, guess what.. it wasn't making any money. Perrys know how to sell cars at low prices, very used to tight margins so they dipped their toes in the bike business and opened a new Honda dealership, 18 months later and a quarter of a million pounds poorer they shut the business down.
I know of 4 independant dealers who have recently closed, couldn't wait to get out of the business, wished they'd done it a few years ago - a radical change in the motorcycle business is needed otherwise there won't be any decent dealers left.
