Power Profiles

G&G Cycle – Salisbury, MA – Nov. 15, 2004

G & G CYCLE

CONTACT
142 Lafayette Road
Salisbury, MA 01952
978/462-7900
www.gandgcycle.com

OWNERS
Gary and Karen Montminy

BUSINESS PROFILE
G&G was founded in 1974; Gary Montminy began working there in 1976, then bought the dealership in 1982 with wife Karen. Two locations in Salisbury: the original Ski-Doo/Polaris/Kawasaki/Victory/Sea-Doo store (12,000 sq. ft.), and the Suzuki/Yamaha dealership (6,000 sq. ft.) that the Montminys purchased one year ago. Plans to combine the two dealerships are in the works. Largest-selling segments are almost equally snowmobile and motorcycle. 22 employees between the two stores.

GREATEST CONCERN
“We’re under increasing pressure from the manufacturers to stock more, which makes it difficult at times to manage the inventory,” says Montminy. “That’s something all dealers are up against these days. The manufacturers’ answer to a deficiency in market share is for the dealer to buy more units. Sometimes we have to discount those units to get rid of them if they’re backing up, and we’re seeing more of that.”

WHAT’S HOT?
Going gangbusters at G&G: the Ski-Doo Rev snowmobile lineup, the new-for-2005 Yamaha YZ125 motocrosser, the Yamaha V-Star 1100 cruiser, and the Polaris Sportsman ATV lineup. How have PWC sales been? “They’ve been off,” says Montminy. “Pretty poor, actually.”

CUSTOMER BUYING TRENDS
Montminy says many of his customers are 40-plus years of age. “We have a lot of professional people now. Salisbury is less than an hour from downtown Boston, so our area is growing into a suburb. There’s a lot of new housing and a pretty good mix of people.” While Montminy sees many customers taking advantage of the factory-incentive financing, “There is a high number of people who are paying for their recreational products with home-equity loans. That way they’re able to write off the interest. We’re also seeing more Internet shoppers. We have our own Web site that generates quite a few leads every day.”

ANTI-POWERSPORTS ISSUES
Montminy says that personal watercraft riding areas “seem to be constantly under fire. We’re feeling more and more pressure on the ATV side, also. We belong to some of the personal watercraft associations in the area, and donate money so we have a lobbyist who helps inform local legislators and keeps on top of anti-personal watercraft legislation. We belong to the Massachusetts Motorcycle Dealer Association, and also the New Hampshire Personal Watercraft Association, since we’re right on the border. Quite a few of our customers are either from New Hampshire or take their watercraft there.”

PARTS AND SERVICE
Between the two G&G stores there are five full-time parts staffers and 10 folks in service, including six technicians. “We try to take advantage of any manufacturers’ update schools,” says Montminy. “One of our techs just came back from the Yamaha snowmobile update.” The Montminys plan to break ground on the new combined store in Spring or early Summer 2005. “We’re going to have a bigger showroom so we can accessorize more display units. The service department will be bigger to handle the demand, and we’re looking at hiring two additional techs.”

WORDS OF ADVICE
Montminy says the best advice he was given is to “work hard and pay attention to what your customers are telling you. I work a lot of hours. Personally, I still love motorcycles. But it takes a lot of work.”

– Julie Filatoff

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