SWM and Mash importer HQB appears to have ceased trading. The phones at its Andover office ring out and messages to owner Richard Johnson have gone unanswered.
A statement attributed to Johnson, aimed at the 33 SWM and 47 Mash dealers in the UK, appeared on Facebook on Tuesday 30 October. It was posted by Craig Whitney, who provided public relations services for HQB, and read:
“We have been working with both manufacturers to assist them in locating alternative importer relationships for the UK and any new importer will (by law) have to accept responsibility for all previously sold machines which are still within warranty.
“The negotiations with other importers will also include the purchase of all spare parts and support materials currently in the UK. There will inevitably be a few weeks delay, but I am sure that announcements will be made soon.
“For HQB, the adventure has ended – a mixture of Brexit ( and the impact on the pound), a weak market (due to Brexit worries among the public), the death of my co-director and shareholder earlier this year, and bad debts in excess of £50k have all put pay to our future.
“The shareholder(s) have supported HQB throughout the last two-and-a-half years while we waited and prayed for a deal to be done, but with no end in sight, the money has run out.
“Death by Brexit – not project fear – bloody project reality and real people losing real jobs!! Thank you Boris the ****** – and I don’t mind if you publish that exactly as it is.”
It was signed “best regards, Richard”.
BDN is awaiting a response to a message sent to SWM in Italy and tried unsuccessfully to reach Mash in France.
Dealers seemed to be unaware of the development and were taken aback by the news.
THE DEALER PERSPECTIVE
Jim Strefford, one of the partners at family-run Strefford of Worcester, said on Wednesday: “It’s news to me. Being workshop-based, we have been busy all day and I can’t really say I know anything about it. It’s a bit of a shock.”
Streffords, which also retails Peugeot, Sinnis and Lifan electric scooters, has an extensive stock of paid-for SWM and Mash machines, having taken on the former in 2015, the year HQB started importing the Italian brand, and the latter just over one year ago.
Reporting that he had sold “about eight SWMs this year, Strefford said: “We weren’t doing too badly at all really. They are good bikes.”
Strefford’s son Nathan, another partner with Jim’s wife, Heather, is recognised by other dealers as a bit of a technical guru for SWM.
In a follow-up call yesterday, Jim Strefford said he was no further forward with the situation, with emails and messages to HQB going unanswered and other dealers contacting him asking the same questions.
“We don’t know what’s happening,” he said.
FACT FILE
BDN reported in July 2015 that HQB had been appointed as the UK importer for SWM which had launched a range of single-cylinder enduro, motard and classic-style street models at the Milan Show in November 2014.
HQB had already taken on on the Chinese-made French Mash brand of retro-style motorcycles in 2014 and used Motorcycle Trade Expo in January 2015 to kick start dealer recruitment.
In January 2018, Johnson told BDN that “along with every other importer, HQB has suffered from exchange fluctuations”. He went on:“It has been tough recently. In this past six months we’ve all had to squeeze our margins a little bit – our supplier has given a bit, as have we and our dealers. We’re trying to equalise the misery of the devalued pound, because it’s a weak market and we can’t pass it all on to the customer.”