As a lot of you know, I work at D&D Cycles in Pensacola, FL, today we finally broke ground or I should say cement on our new expansion. Hopefully this will only take a couple (no more than 3 we hope) of months and we will have a nicer facility to show the public.

For those of you who regularly visit our dealership, please excuse the mess, we'll try to accommodate you as best we can.





Dennis

I don't go by there one day and you start tearing the place apart Dennis. I ride with you 1 time and I'm still drying out from that little adventure. The only reason I stick around is to see what you will come up with next...

My local dealer sells BMW and Triumph. They have been in the same location since 1956. BMW told them they would have to build a separate showroom for their line. So they are having to add on. What's funny is that last year was the first year Triumph models out sold the BMWs.

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There is no replacement for displacement.

Motorcycle manufacturers are now into segregation of brands rather than allowing a franchise to lump all the brands together......The theory is that a customer will be more likely to purchase a particular brand if the brand isn't intermingled with other brands. It eliminates side-by-side comparison shopping.

Some manufacturers want entirely separate facilities, physically divorced from competitive brands (Indian and HD are good examples). While it sounds good on paper, in reality, it's going to cost the consumer more because the facilities costs are built into the bottom line.

It has little to do with the consumer and a lot to do with the franchisee. It's not an expansion per se', it's a segregation.

One can butter it anyway one wants to and present it in a palatable manner to customers, but it's not about the customer at all. It's about the perceived view of each brand.

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Flipmeisters Specialty Products
www.flipmeisters.com
Pursuing the never ending quest for cheaper bling.......

Yada, Yada, Yada, (saying that in jest), but ours is just an expansion, no physically separate facility's for each brand (Triumph, Ducati, and KTM). They (each brand) will probably each be in their own section but our showroom was getting a little crowded, this way you can walk around and admire the bikes better from different angles. We'll also have a customer "lounge" but no cafe lattes or expressos here just coffee with a soda machine nearby.
Dennis

Triumph has and is putting more pressure on multi-line franchises to segregate lines. You can read about that (or at least you could last time I checked) under 'becoming a dealer' on their main page.

Hopefully, your 'lounge' pop machines is subsidized by the owner(s). I know the suggested mark-up on accessories sold at dealerships....I won't tell though.

KTM and Ducati because of the niche status don't apply that pressure. If, by some strange reason, either brand became mainstream, then the corresponding manufacturer would apply that pressure I'm sure. It's all about economics.

Having said that, Triumph isn't mainstream compared to say Honda or HD. Triumph is still a niche bike here in this country unlike Europe which is why the styling ques applied to the Triumph line mostly originate in Europe. Triumph, at one time, was the bike of choice here in the United States but as fate would have it, they lost that status. Whether it is ever regained is conjecture. Presently, there are literally a plethora of brands each jockeying for a piece of the consumers pie. Like a stack of card, that can all come falling down anytime. I saw that very same thing happen with snowmobiles. At one time years ago there were over 300 different brands competing for the consumers dollars. The business went bust and now there are 4 and a handful of specialty builders. Anything can happen and does.

It might be ya-da-da-di-da to you, but that's the way it is. I follow the industry a lot closer than you may realize.

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Flipmeisters Specialty Products
www.flipmeisters.com
Pursuing the never ending quest for cheaper bling.......

Dennis you have ripped up the spot where I always park and yes I am holding you personally responsible. Flip how about getting that skinny arse of yours down to Pensacola and run the expansion project I m not waiting three months for it to finish when Flip can get it done faster
(Flip bring some free samples for me when you come to Pensacola)

I'm a terror on an extenda-hoe. I have a friend who has a white one like the Terex in the first pictures.....Made in England by the way.

I'm playing Dr. Hook at ES. I'll have junk in da trunk.......

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Flipmeisters Specialty Products
www.flipmeisters.com
Pursuing the never ending quest for cheaper bling.......