A few weeks ago I was reminded, rather brutally in
fact, that not only does more than one person actually read this column,
but that some of them take it rather too seriously. Or at least one of them
does. Oh alright, let's call him My Reader No.2 since Reader No.1, or simply
My Reader as he was, hitherto known, think everything that appears under
this byline is total rubbish and never lets me forget it every time he pops
round to borrow a pint of creme de menthe and flirt with my latest gorgeous,
pouting assistante.I won't bore you with the substance of Reader No. 2's complaint, but suffice it to say that the normally impenetrable security system at Trader Towers - a/k/a Ronnie the Rottweiller - revealed a chink in its armour which somehow enabled him to extract some of my more personal details from a culpable office junior and thence called up to berate me. This was followed by an hysterical e-mail which completely ignored the typically lighthearted nature of that month's Top Tip To The Trade and suggested that I'd be better off writing a seriously shameless hype for their fabulous products.
Respected man of letters that I am, my reply consisted of just two, rather monosyballic words and I trust the matter will rest there, but as I sternly reminded Reader No.1 over a magnum of Famous Grouse only the other night, there have been times when this column has tackled serious matters from top to bottom, if only due to the lack of a comely personal assistante who might otherwise divert me onto more pleasurable matters.
And this is just such an occasion, although in fact I can take pleasure, (in fact I can take more pleasure than most men if it's available), in telling you what you by now probably already know, and that's the news that the Clews family are back in business at CCM. And wearing one of my other hats as a contributor to that fine, if dirty little organ, Trail Bike Magazine, I was apprised of this by one of TBM's team of highly-paid undercover informants just days after Alan, son Austin and his brother-in-law, Gary Harthern had acquired the business, rights and assets of the 'old' CCM, which they've subsumed into a 'new' CCM, or CCM (Gt. Britain) Ltd. as I believe it's called.
There'll be no extravagant promises for the future,' he assured me, in a not-so-veiled reference to the previous management's claims, 'and our first priority is to get the spares operation up and running. We've also got to talk to the dealers because at the moment we're not sure how we're going to sell the motorcycles.'
Which of course means that they will be building bikes again.
Indeed I saw dozens of frames and batches of Suzuki engines waiting to go off to Vale Street, plus a dozen or so completed bikes that could go out, well, tomorrow, although small scale manufacturing probably won't start 'til late November, using several ex-CCM staff. But Clews is well aware of the sensitivity of this situation, with a dealer network mired in uncertainty about a marque they'd been selling in the teeth of competition, in particular from KTM and Suzuki themselves, and owners clamouring for spares and in some cases, warranty claims.
The good news is that the Receivers, BDO, have struck a deal with GE Capital, the finance company who were flooring the dealer's bikes, and according to Austin 'they will pay dealers to undertake bona fide warranty work with parts supplied by the new company' which GE Capital will also underwrite.
The Clews family apparently got the business in the face of concerted rivalry 'from some other major players', but when I commented that they must've got a good deal, he just smiled and said 'I couldn't really comment on that.' Possibly the Receivers were keen to sell everything off in one hit, rather than try and find buyers for the bits and pieces that'd be left after disposing of the obviously lucrative spares business.
Given the long history and many ups and downs of the CCM brand, Austin was pretty reticent about the background to the old company's £l0million crash. 'Neither me nor my father had been involved for over a year,' he explains, 'so I can't really say what they were doing. But I do know that when the venture capitalists got involved they didn't understand how to run a motorcycle business and hired a whole lot of accountants and consultants to try and reinvent the wheel. At one stage there were more people on working in the upstairs office than there were on the shop floor! I imagine that even though they sold a good number of motorcycles this year, they couldn't sustain the overheads.'
Although if course I often act as a highly regarded, (and heavily remunerated), consultant myself, my talents are normally employed in a businesses I am master of, namely that of putting ink on paper, sometimes with the words 'motorbicycle magazine' stamped on it. But I know only too well the folly of throwing money at advisers and throwing advisers at companies where so-called 'blue-sky thinking' is judged to be desirable.
Fat chance that will happen again with CCM, and let's hope that after at least two ill-fated takeovers (Armstrong in the 'eighties and Aberdeen Murray Johnstone in the 'noughties), CCMs will be thumping off the production line and into our hearts again for a good few years yet. And if Reader No.2 is still with me, I mean that in all seriousness.