The following message is from Charles Runyan, proprietor of
The Roadster Factory. I passed on to Charles some of the prior messages
commenting on TRF and speculating as to what may or may not be happening.
Charles has penned the following reply to several comments which begins
immediately after my sig lines.
Note - To reply directly to Charles use the following email
address:
COVCAR@aol.com
Cheers, ---------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Sohl K2UNK (Budd lake, New Jersey) (billsohl@planet.net)
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To - All British Car Users of the Internet
Charles A. Runyan, Proprietor, The Roadster Factory
August 22, 1995
Dear British Car People,
There have been some messages on The Internet to which I should
like to reply at this time.
The first item that I would like to mention relates to backordered
parts. Someone has indicated that The Roadster Factory and perhaps some
other
British car suppliers have nothing in stock. With regard to The Roadster
Factory, this is far from the truth. In fact, we have more than
$5-million in
stock at retail value every day of the year. We ship more than $100,000
worth
of parts to customers every week, and we receive a major air freight shipment
from England every week and smaller land shipments from U.S. vendors
every day.
Our current position with backorders is better than it was last year at
this time, and our rate of order fill is improving every day.
Certain in-house thinking and methods of operation did cause us
to run
very short of fast-moving components during the spring of this year, and
out-of-stock positions on certain parts with suppliers have caused us to
be out
of basic items such as MGB oil filters in the busy season of the year.
Convertible tops and tonneau covers have been taking eight weeks to come from
the manufacturer. We have counteracted in-house difficulties by
installing a
new and faster computer mainframe and by putting computer people in
charge of
inventory purchasing. We are ordering from every vendor every week, and
we are
shipping all inventory from England by air freight to get it here quicker.
Yes, we are attempting to move our inventory more times per year.
Most companies are. In the past, we tended to keep a whole year of
inventory in stock, and this was a major problem for cash flow. We also
invest huge amounts of money in new manufacturing which ties up a lot of our
capital, especially in the very competitive market that we have today.
There have also been some messages on The Internet suggesting
that The
Roadster Factory may merge with another British parts company, and this is
very far from the truth. As sole proprietor of The Roadster Factory, I
remain
completely committed to the company. I still work seven days a week, and I
still write nearly every word that we publish and mail to our customers. I
enjoy the business and the customers, and I believe that this is evident to
anyone who meets me at our Annual Summer Party or at any of the other shows
that we attend each year. I know that a large percentage of customers
respond to The Roadster FactoryUs personal touch and its unique, sometimes
off-the-wall, methods of doing business. I recognize a personal
responsibility
to continue to support the customers who have believed in me and
supported my business for the past twenty years.
It is not just me who is committed to running The Roadster
Factory well
and to providing the best possible British parts service to our
customers. The
entire staff is committed to a primary level of customer service. That means
that we want to provide such good service up front that there is no need to
deal with a secondary level of customer service to fix up problems made
at the
primary level of our dealings. On the level of secondary customer service,
however, we have just hired a new service person, Joanie Griffith, who is a
long-time family friend and deeply committed to the company and to our
customers. Also new this past spring was Bill Jones on our Tech Line. Bill
has done complete rebuilds on Triumphs and MGBUs, and he is an expert
body man.
We believe that Bill will provide accurate tech support for our customers.
Most of The Roadster FactoryUs telephone salespeople are long-term
staff. They know the stock, and they know our catalogues. The take orders
accurately and help customers to get what they need. TRF has always had the
most friendly and the most human staff in the British car trade, and our goal
is to improve on this. I personally was taken aside by dozens of guests
at our
Annual Summer Party two weeks ago to receive commendations on the performance
of various members of my staff both at The Summer Party and in other
encounters throughout the year.
I believe that most Internet users have been constructively concerned
about the performance of The Roadster Factory. We are well on our way to
solving our out-of-stock problem, and the best way to support us until we
have completely solved it and the best way to insure that we remain in
business in
the years ahead is to purchase everything you can from us. We donUt need to
hold up your project by keeping a part on backorder, but we do need to
sell as
much as possible because the profits from those sales will allow us to keep
more in stock, allow us to manufacture more unavailable
components, and allow us to maintain the famous quality of the parts we
supply.
I have always considered my business to be a partnership with our customers.
If the customers buy our parts as often as they can, we are able to make more
parts available and to provide our parts at the best possible prices.
This is my first communication on The Internet, and I have probably
said enough for this one time. I hope to be able to communicate with you
more
often in this manner as time goes on. The Roadster Factory is interested
in using The Internet and other technology to improve communication and
service to 3our customers.
If you have comments that you would like to address to me personally,
the best method is by fax to 8l4 446-6729 or by e-mail to COVCAR@aol.com.
No period after the e-mail address.
Your interest in The Roadster Factory is much appreciated by everyone
here.
Best regards,
Charles A. Runyan
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