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In response to various comments concerning The Roadster Factory, we have
attached the following file.
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name="LBC.TXT"
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The Roadster Factory
March 3,1997
=0D
Dear LBC Enthusiasts,
=0D
I note that there has been some conversation among you on The Intern=
et
about my financial condition. This comes up periodically for whatever rea=
son,
and I would like to dispel any further rumors.
=0D
The truth is that I have suffered financial distress in the autumn a=
nd winter
of every year since 1978 when I founded The Roadster Factory. I have publ=
ished
my life story many times in TRF publications. In 1978, I took a couple of=
thousand dollars earned as a librarian at The University of Pittsburgh pl=
us a
couple of more borrowed from the local bank, and my wife and I started a =
sports
car company in our attic. I now have a 30,000 square-foot warehouse and a=
$3-
million inventory. Do you think that I created all of this overnight with=
money
earned from selling LBC parts? Actually, I borrowed the money from my loc=
al
bank, and the payments get very hard to make every autumn when you put yo=
ur
cars away for the year and turn on your computers until spring comes agai=
n.
=0D
During the first ten years that I was in business, I did think that =
I would
become wealthy in the British parts trade, and I made some decisions then=
that
still cost me money today. I have always run my company with integrity,
however, I have supported club efforts with money I didn't have, and I ha=
ve
invested a very large percentage of the money that I have made in
remanufacturing about one-thousand parts for your and my LBCs. But, we ha=
d a
little recession in the early 1990's, and many LBC owners started to buy =
on price
from competitors who sold a cheaper grade of stuff. Other LBC owners stop=
ped
buying parts altogether then, and neither they nor their cars have been h=
eard of
since. Starting in 1993, TRF had to sell Vandervell engine bearings at co=
st to
compete with cheapy bearings sold by one competitor. Why didn't we sell c=
heapy
bearings? Because I wouldn't use them in my car, and I didn't want you to=
have
to use them in yours. That has pretty much been my attitude about anythin=
g sold
at TRF. I don't make decisions that make me money at the expense of quali=
ty in
the parts we sell. Not even when I need the money.
=0D
=0CPage 2
=0D
The Roadster Factory and now The Coventry Inn are companies run on
different principles than the ones where most of you work. We are not gen=
erally
run by a committee, although my senior staff gives me lots of advice, and=
I allow
them a great deal of authority in many matters. I know that I have made m=
any
decisions at The Roadster Factory that wouldn't be made in a corporation,=
and if
there has been any suffering to be done, it has been me and my family who=
've
suffered. For instance, right now as I am writing this letter, I have bee=
n
approached by John Swauger and Deb Gawlas in regard to a door seal clip f=
or a
Triumph TR3. This part was listed in my first twelve-page TR3 catalogue
published in l978. We've had an original source for it for many years, wh=
ile our
competitors have substituted a cheaper clip which is not original in conf=
iguration
and which clearly does not do the job as well.
=0D
Our original source for the TR3 door seal clip has recently dried up=
, and
John and Deb want to know if we should remanufacture the clip on new tool=
ing
to the original specification or if we should buy the non-original clip i=
n England.
The generic clip will cost us about 15 cents, and Moss sells it for 45 ce=
nts.
Victoria British tries to undercut Moss at 44 cents. If we manufacture th=
is clip, it
will cost us 16 cents each plus $1,200.00 for new tooling. This means tha=
t 10,000
clips will cost us 28 cents each. This is a lot of clips, and a company l=
ike ours
really does need to make two, three, or four times cost on a part like th=
is to make
it financially feasible to hold stock of small items for years before it =
is sold.
Would you pay even 56 cents each to The Roadster Factory for the forty cl=
ips
required for your car if you own a TR3 if Victoria British is selling the=
generic
clip for 44 cents? Can you trust us enough to know that you will get 56 c=
ents
worth of clip from us when a competitor is listing a part for the same ap=
plication
at a much lower price? Isn't this the sort of topic that you need tv disc=
uss on The
Internet rather than whether or not Charles Runyan has financial troubles=
or a
happy sex life? Don't you ever compare parts from different sources or wo=
nder
what competitors are selling when you receive something that you like les=
s than
you might wish? Apologies for the length of this paragraph which really s=
hould
have been part of the previous one.
=0D
To provide further answers to some of the matters currently under
discussion on The Internet: The Roadster Factory has a Winter Parts Sale =
every
year in order to get our business off to a good start in January. We need=
a good
start every year because we do not have cash reserves. Instead, we have $=
3-
million in parts at cost on the warehouse shelves. By January, we haven't=
had a
=0D
=0CPage 3
=0D
really good month of sales since August or September because the LBC part=
s
business is a seasonal business. We start our sale in mid-January, but we=
don't get
a really great day of sales until the end of the month which is the first=
sale
deadline. All month long, we have salespeople sitting at their desks answ=
ering
calls but not being really busy. Then, on the last day of the deadline, w=
e receive
hundreds of phone calls and a hundred faxes. Five-hundred orders were log=
ged
on the last day of January, this year. Before the last day of the sale, w=
e were
filling 90% or more of the lines on an average order. Now that the sale p=
eak has
been reached, we are probably down to 75% or 80% on order fill. We work
constantly with suppliers to replace our stock, but they often backorder =
too. We
will have our parts stock back to normal in a few weeks, and most backord=
ers
will be filled quickly. Some backorders will take longer, depending upon
production capacity of suppliers. Interior parts are the most difficult, =
and
interior parts, which are expensive, are the ones most commonly ordered o=
n the
last day of a sale period.
=0D
With $3-million worth of parts on the shelves in our warehouse, what=
further precautions could we have taken to supply parts during The Winter=
Parts
Sale? Customers wait all year for the sale, but they also wait till the l=
ast day of
the sale to order. We have all of our parts on order all of the time. We =
order
every week from every supplier using a computer program to determine orde=
r
quantities based on what we are selling now and what we sold at this same=
time
last year. Many English manufacturers are virtually shut down for much of=
December and January, and many of them also suffer from the fact that you=
put
your LBC's away in the autumn and don't work on them again until late win=
ter
or early spring. The Roadster Factory is only now getting its first shipm=
ents of
1997 from many English suppliers, and this is not because we waited until=
now to
place orders.
=0D
The Roadster Factory's policy on backorders created from The 1997
Winter Parts Sale couldn't be more fair to customers. First of all, they =
get a
discount of up to 20% on the parts. Second the parts aren't charged to cr=
edit cards until the
day they are shipped. And third, there is no additional shipping charge o=
n any
backordered item.
=
Do you really want to help to keep parts available and in stock at T=
he
Roadster Factory for your Triumph or your MGB forever? If so, please stop=
gossiping about Charles's financial difficulties and Charles's love life.=
Use your
=0D
=0CPage 4
=0D
British car and work on it. Place all of your parts orders with The Roads=
ter
Factory, and get all of your friends to place theirs here as well. The Ro=
adster
Factory has the staff, the knowledge, and the computer power to do the jo=
b for
you and for twice as many Triumph and MGB enthusiasts as there are in the=
country today. We have most of the parts in stock most of the time, and w=
e fill
most backorders quickly. If most enthusiasts order most of their Triumph =
and
MGB parts from The Roadster Factory, we will have no financial problems a=
nd
even more of the parts will be available every day. Rather than immediate=
availability, the most important thing about The Roadster Factory is that=
we live
up to our obligation as a British Motor Heritage Approved Supplier by sup=
plying
the best parts that money can buy every time.
=0D
Charles Runyan is committed to this hobby and this business for life=
=2E He
has always been on your side, and you can count on him in the future. Can=
he
count on you? Charles needs your loyalty in good times and in bad times.
=0D
Best regards,
=0D
Charles A. Runyan
=0D
P.S. Aside from a period of two months in late 1994 and early 1995, Dave
Hagenbuch has been employed steadily in The Roadster Factory Sales Depart=
ment
since 1983. He has done a number of jobs during that time, but he is curr=
ently
answering our "tech line."
=0D
=0C=
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