A friend suggested to me that this type of insolvency filing is often used in today's corporate environment. Apart from the 400 TT staff who should be dusting down their CVs, the workers at their supplier companies might also want to take note if TT are now legally able to prescribe they can only pay e.g. 30% of what they owe...

An aside, the short fingered, orange fella who resides at #1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW has apparently also done this insolvency shuffle thing twice in his business career. Seems not to have done him any harm.

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

On that basis it seems hardly worth sending out a press release. They could just stick it on the annual calendar:

Dec - xmas party
Mar - shut 2 days for stocktaking
May - customer open day
July - insolvency week. Staff on holiday.
Oct - annual sale

The worldly-aware realise that this is standard practice across all corporations nowadays.
Every nation has their own way of dealing with it, but letting corporations off their responsibilties is the name of the game, alongside "privatise the profits and socialise the losses (via taxpayers)".
"Financilisation" is the key word for the way of this world; staff are expendible, there being plenty more where they came from.

It's a few years since, but I well recall talking with many levels of Hein Gericke staff based in the UK, including one of their franchisees - they had no idea what was happening with that parent company; Mr Plumb is in the same position.

__________________
Dave

From TT UK or TT DE?

I'd be very surprised if it was DE, and of course there's a big difference.

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

It was from DE.

An aside, I've never had any commercial interaction with UK so they won't have my email details.

Screenshot below....

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

not to start or continue an argument, but my expereince with TT stuff so far has been good. GPS mount for the vstrom and a set of zega pros. i purchased both through a germany-based online retailer and even with shipping to the US, paid over 30% than if i had purchased from TT US.

of course, everyone has their own experiences and not all products are equal.

regarding the levers mentioned above, i bought a set of quite expensive ASV C5 levers for the strom and then spotted a set of chinese ones on flea bay. ordered up the flea bay levers with the intention of returning the ASV levers. well, that plan was changed INSTANTLY once i had my fingers on the chino levers. total junk. rough edges, poor fit, flimsy feel. sold the chino levers with a disclaimer that i felt they were an inferior product and kept the ASV lever, which have been simply brilliant for the past 6 years.

sometimes (not always) you get what you pay for. and of course, sometimes, you pay a lot for what is supposed to be a top product and you get bent over.

__________________
'07 DL1000 '08 DR650

That last bit about sums it up from what I've seen of TT items on many friends
BMW GS's and Triumphs in person. In USA, we are lucky to have a new generation of small, independent fabricators like ASV and many others. Some stuff made in USA, some made in China but US design.

Some TT items seem good, some not so much, but always way expensive for what the item is.

I wonder where most TT products are actually made? Anyone actually visited the production facility in Germany (or anywhere)?

Is British TourTech independent of TT Germany? Or linked? If so, how?
A subsidiary? Franchise? or wholly owned independent company?

I'd be very surprised if ALL TT products were made in Germany. I'm just guessing, but isn't it likely they already have "farmed out" production of many items to China? ... and they still went belly up.

The Nick Plumb statement is clear enough about business as usual: try buying at lower European prices and they send the boyos round!

TT UK are a separate company, a distributor with a deal to sell the stuff, use the logo's etc.

Andy

A little "clarification" that may help:

1: TT Germany are not "bankrupt". They are "insolvent" which means they have a cash flow problem. Under German law the designation means that they can restructure, sort out the debt and how to pay it in a timely manner to the satisfaction of all, and move on without pressure to pay bills "today". They could have simply stopped paying bills - or delayed for months - and fired a lot of staff and eventually might have been ok, but took the moral route and are doing it the right way.

2: The reason all this has happened is that they had so much demand they couldn't produce it in their old factory, which was bursting at the seams - I've seen it, it was FULL! So, they built a new building, but there were a number of issues from software to getting equipment setup as planned - and there were a lot of delays in the end, so production didn't ramp up till much later than planned. So, no production, not enough product to sell, unhappy customers, not enough money flowing in to pay the bills, especially the 10 million euros for the building.

If they hadn't built the new factory they wouldn't have been able to fill all the orders, so they were between a rock and a hard place. I think they made the right - if not the ONLY decision they could make, and went for the new factory to better serve their customers, but things didn't go according to plan. Anyone who has ever managed a project knows how that happens!

3: Products - ALL their TT-branded products are made in the EU, because that creates jobs at home, not in China, AND means that the quality is the best possible, and changes and improvements can be implemented quickly. Yes it means that prices will be higher than if it came from China, so make your choice - top quality gear that uses the best available materials and engineering or cheap knock-offs from China using unknown materials that may or may not snap at the first blink.

4: Related to that is that no jobs are at risk at this point so far as we know. They need all the staff they have, and I know that they are looking for MORE, in order to fulfill all their orders and get production up to where they can keep up with the demand. Could some people lose their jobs? Sure, it's possible, but wholesale losses very unlikely.

For our part, we've known all the top people at Touratech for years and many of the staff, as well as a number of the distributors, wish them all well and are confident they can sort it out and get rolling again at full speed. They're great people doing their very best to supply top quality gear - made in Europe.

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

I've been there many times, talked to the designers and production people, and can confirm that ALL TT BRANDED products are made in the EU. That is a central tenet of their business philosophy and you can be assured it is true.

IMPORTANT NOTE: They also sell NON TT branded products such as MSR, Thermarest and many others that are made who knows where - much of it in China. They don't make tents, mattresses etc. so for the convenience of their customers they bring in what they feel is the best available product and sell it on. You can choose to buy it at your local TT distributor with a TT barcode on it, knowing that it came from the manufacturer to TT DE and on to TT in Country X - and it WILL be more - OR you can buy it locally from a local retailer who brings it in via a less circuitous route and it will probably be cheaper. Take your pick. Check your prices as always.

All TT distributors are completely separate companies that buy product from TT DE and sell it on, at their chosen markup, which will depend on duties, shipping costs, and cost of doing business in their home location PLUS what they want for a profit margin. They get exclusive rights to an area/country in exchange for promoting, advertising and stocking the vast range of TT products, and dealing with warranty etc.


Absolutely not, AND they have NOT gone belly up - read my post above for clarification on that.

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

I´m significantly pissed off by comments on the net like "nobody will cry when TT goes down". I´ve been ordering stuff from TT since 2007, shelling out about €10.000 on equipment for family´s five bikes. No, I´ve not always been happy or impressed with the quality and I´ve told them more than one time that the coating of carriers and engine bars suck. But I´ve been even less impressed with stuff I´ve been ordering from Wunderlich, SW Motech and other competitors and most of the time ended up with chosing TT products. What I have been impressed of was the constant, customer-oriented support I received from TT, directly at their shop in Niedereschach, by phone, by mail and by practical help. No mail was left unanswered, every call was returned, on one occasion even on late saturday afternoon. For testing within a German KTM forum community they have provided me with some expensive gear and they have been absolutely great to work with if there ever was a defect in a product, even after the European statutory 2 year warranty (something most U.S. folks cannot even begin to believe existing, unless you´re shopping at Land´s End). I own some U.S. made stuff like a bash plate from AltRider and am equally happy with that stuff and their support.

I´ve been living in Detroit for some years, however, and my experience with U.S. dealers in general was in a number of cases absolutely horrible, especially on electronics like computers, appliances and other household goods, and mostly I felt like being asked by the dealer to bend over for him to have fun with me when I tried to return some defective product to a shop after a couple of months only, so I know first hand what real manufacturer/seller-backed product support means. Finally let´s not forget TT´s generosity with the TT Travel Events, which are one of the most-awaited yearly bike events for travellers and f*ing free of charge. At that time, their huge production facilities in southern Germany are open for visitors, too and if one is lucky like me, you meet Susan and Grant there.

I´m a traveller, having spent about 200.000km on the road with TT stuff and I for one would be heartbroken for the good people at TT if they would go down. For those of you who ride old, reliable workhorses like an original Africa Twin or an F650GS - there won´t be many options for accessories left when TT would be gone; they still support bikes which their manufacturers and TT´s competitors barely remember.

I agree with Grant´s analysis (having some professional knowledge about the subject). However, what Herbert and the folks now need is not being kicked ass publicly from people who could never afford a BMW and then spit at every Beemer crossing their path, but they need a show of support, right here, right now. What I´m saying is: If we need stuff for next season, let´s not delay the order but place it now. If you like to support this view, check out the #touratech tweet from @ChrisKnust
Cheers
Chris

__________________
Need to fix your Africa Twin? Check out my step-by-step frame strip pictures at
Google+ album: http://tinyurl.com/6u93yv2
Dropbox with zip-File: http://tinyurl.com/czj8qgw

Thank you for your factual and balanced analysis of the situation.

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Keks says a lot that is very factual and balanced, unfortunately as ALL of us are prone to, he may have injected a little hyperbole into his comments. Doesn't make the rest of it any less factual, and I agree with the rest of his comments, especially supporting Touratech when they're down. We ALL want a strong aftermarket - even BMW / KTM / Ducati etc do, as it's all part of the ecosystem that we all love. Touratech was there with adventure riding products before it was called that, and are a big part of helping it grow. MANY travellers have some TT bits on their bike and are happy with them.

The amount of negativity towards BMW, Touratech and any other "successful" company always amazes me. All of us want to be successful and "make it" but we're all too good at the "tall poppy syndrome" as the Aussies call it - anyone who stands above the crowd tends to get their head chopped off.

You don't like someone's products don't buy it, but there's no need to call them names, they're just people like you and me trying to make a living, with varying degrees of success.

In the meantime, yes, let's support Touratech and help them recover and get through the current situation with as little pain as possible. There's a lot of great people there who could use your support.

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Well said, why would I not want the opportunity to buy their products, whether I chose to or not?
TT have pushed the whole adventure bike sector forward and given us more choice. In general I tend to shop elsewhere but I bear them no ill will. I hope they survive and continue giving us more choices.

To be fair, what also worked for Skoda was making good products and being better value than their competitors.