J&P Cycles has added another 'Brick and Mortar' retail location to its growing network - at Scottsdale, AZ. Traditionally a mail order operator, since its acquisition by Cycle Gear and Revzilla owner Comoto (Prospect Hill Growth Partners), J&P recently stepped away from its long-term sponsorship of the Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show series at the now canceled IMS Outdoors event program. The Scottsdale store is managed by Ryan Dannenmueller. J&P now has six stores, including its founding store at Anamosa, Iowa, Sturgis, Daytona, Pigeon Forge, TN and Taylor, MI.
Owner Kinderhook Industries, LLC flipped its Mentor, Ohio based Race Winning Brands (RWB) subsidiary in November 2021. The new owner is New York based MiddleGround Capital. Headed up by industry veterans Bob Bruegging as President and Bob Romanelli as acquisitions lead, RWB was originally carved out of Dover Corporation in 2017. It had "completed eight strategic acquisitions" under Kinderhook ownership. RWB numbers Wiseco Performance Products, Manley Performance, ProX Racing Parts, Rekluse Motor Sports and JE Pistons among its best known powersports industry "units."
May was recognized by The White House and President Biden as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. This came less than three months after the AMA, MIC and MSF met with U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Buttigieg requesting White House recognition of the month and addressing other motorcycle industry priorities.
VRM Spa, the owner of the storied Italian suspension brand Marzocchi, has confirmed that it is moving production to China in a partnership deal with Benelli owner Qiangjiang's QJMotors subsidiary, creating a new company called Zheijang Mazhouke Machinery Manufacturing. The new business will manufacture Marzocchi branded forks and shocks for sale in China and export worldwide. Production will be based at a new "state-of-the-art" facility in Zhejiang province. Florenzo Vanzetto, CEO of VRM, says that his company has grown Marzocchi turnover from € 8m a year when they saved the brand from liquidation in 2008 to € 32m now. Marzocchi was acquired by the € 8bn turnover Tenneco - the Monroe shocks owner - just as the global financial crisis started to bite. The U.S. conglomerate quite quicky decided to divest itself of what it judged likely to become an expensive and 'troubled' asset.
Irving, TX based RumbleOn, Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBL) - "the nation's first technology-based omnichannel powersports platform" - has posted Q1 used retail powersports unit sales up +31%; record revenue of $460m; gross profit of $105m and "robust cash generation with cash flow from operations over $31m."
Ducati has done a deal with parent company Volkswagen's Argentinian subsidiary for CKD assembly of Ducati motorcycles to be distributed within the local Argentinian market. Assembly will start at the Córdoba Industrial Center by the end of 2022. Ducati currently has seven exclusive dealerships in Argentina.
Founded in 2021, the National PowerSports Dealer Association (NPDA) in the USA has said that it already has some 180 paid dealer members in its first ten months - approx. 50% being authorized Harley stores. A H-D dealer-specific Council has been established within the NPDA framework as a forum through which the very particular and specific issues that affect Harley dealers can be worked on. Membership is open to all dealers, regardless of the brands they represent; www.npda.org. NPDA Partnerships are available to vendors who wish to support the association's dealer and industry advocacy efforts.
For a third consecutive year, Parts Unlimited is to continue its $250,000 'Racer Rewards' program for dealers and amateur riders at some 125 events in 2022. "This program has proven to support and strengthen the relationship between the amateur racing community and their local dealers," said Jeff Derge, VP of Sales for Parts Unlimited's parent company, LeMans Corporation. "It's a win-win for everyone in the industry!"
Performance Brokerage Services (PBS) has reported that Open Road H-D of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, has been sold to Matt Chiappetta and Bruce Miner after 15 years of ownership by former finance industry executives Pete Johnson and Lori Thiel. PBS says that it has acted in the sale of over 250 U.S. dealerships of all kinds in the past five years - completing 72 transactions in 2021 alone. Wisconsin natives, Chiappetta and Miner now own four Harley dealerships to grow their Harley-Davidson dealership group (PSB).
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com