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Jul. 13, 2009 – Finance Digest

Protective adds GAP coverage to its lineup
The Powersports Group of Protective’s Asset Protection Division is adding GAP coverage for its powersports dealers, the company said in a press release.
This new product offering provides broader coverage for consumers purchasing a variety of powersport products. Coverage is available for most financed new and preowned sport bikes, snowmobiles, UTVs, ATVs, cruiser bikes, touring bikes, scooters, Lehman trikes, off-road bikes, dual bikes and PWC.
“We expect GAP to be a welcome addition to the current Protective products for our powersport dealerships,” said Chris Bernish, vice president of FPC Dealer Sales. “Our dealers have been asking for a GAP solution and we are happy to be able to offer it to them.”
Protective GAP is designed to cover the difference, in most cases, between the scheduled asset pay-off amount and the asset’s actual cash value.
GAP offers enhanced customer satisfaction and the opportunity to maximize F&I potential on the showroom floor. It will cover a customer’s primary insurance deductible up to $1,000 in certain states with a maximum loan term of seven years.
Protective GAP coverage is currently available in 20 states with a goal of having all 50 states covered soon. For more information, contact FPC Sales Support at 800/328-8690.


Triumph reports on its 2008 worldwide sales
Triumph Motorcycles Group’s worldwide new unit sales increased 19 percent in 2008 over the prior-year period, according to a company press release.
Triumph’s unit sales grew to 48,929 last year. As a result, the private company’s revenue increased 29 percent to $465 million. The company’s operating profit before interest and tax grew by 16 percent to $24 million. “We are cautious in terms of the general market outlook for the 2009 financial year due to the continued global economic crisis and the impact on consumer confidence and spending on discretionary consumer goods,” Tue Mantoni, Triumph Motorcycles’ CEO, said in the release. “The global motorcycle market has declined, in particular in the last three to six months and we expect this pattern to continue during the rest of this year.
“We are, however, cautiously optimistic when it comes to Triumph’s performance.”


ARI’s revenue holds steady in its recent quarter
ARI, a provider of electronic parts catalogs and marketing services, reported slightly higher revenue in its third quarter compared to the year-ago period.
The company also saw a sizeable decrease in its net income — to $226,000 from $427,000 — in its quarter, which ended April 30.
ARI CEO Roy Olivier said in a press release that the company’s slight revenue gain in the quarter was “a result of strong sales of new marketing services and continued high levels of renewals for marketing services and catalog subscriptions, partially offset by a decline in professional services revenue.”
During the quarter, ARI also acquired two firms: Channel Blade Technologies Corp., a company that focuses on sales lead generation and management, and Powersports Outsourcing Group, a F&I provider.
“Because both acquisitions were completed in the latter half of April, they have only had a nominal impact on our third-quarter revenue, but are expected to have a stronger impact in the fourth quarter and beyond,” Olivier said.
For the company’s first nine quarters of its fiscal year, revenues decreased 2.5 percent to $12.2 million. For those first three quarters, ARI’s net income decreased 46.5 percent to $538,000, primarly due to non-cash adjustments to deferred tax assets in the fiscal second and third quarters.


OEM parts dealer launches new dealer program
World of Powersports, a large volume OEM?parts dealer, is launching an Affiliate Program that pays referral commissions of up to 12 percent of sales.
The new affiliate program is an advertising relationship that enables dealers, riding clubs, distributors and individuals that have Web sites, newsletters or other consumer oriented marketing, the ability to earn a commission on orders placed through links with their affiliate code. In support of the affiliate program, World of Powersports has expanded its “You Sell It-We Ship It” drop ship program to allow for its dealers to link directly to OEM Microfiche Catalogs, Accessory Catalogs and Order Status information from their Web site at no charge. Additional co-branded catalogs are available for a fee that will allow dealers to integrate the catalogs directly with their Web sites, allowing customers to place orders on the dealer’s Web site and have the orders filled by World of Powersports.
The OEM parts dealer currently has a network of more than 3,000 dealers.
Those interested in becoming affiliates or finding out more information on the affiliate program should visit www.worldofpowersports.com and click the Affiliate Program link at the bottom of the menu on the left side of the page.

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