Sloan’s Supercenter – Murfreesboro, TN – Aug. 14, 2006

CONTACT
2233 NW Broad St.
Murfreesboro, Tenn.
615-893-0150
www.sloansmotorcycle.com
OWNER
Family held corporation; Bill Sloan, founder and CEO; Curtis Sloan, executive vice president and general manager. Partners include Bill Sloan’s wife, Sharon, daughter and son-in-law, Julie and Jerry Link, and Curtis Sloan’s wife, Lisa.
BUSINESS PROFILE
Curtis Sloan is the second generation of Sloans to have a powersports dealership in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Just as Sloan’s role has changed at the dealership, so too has the size of the store in which he works. Sloan’s Supercenter is now a 60,000 square foot facility featuring Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Polaris and Victory.
“We evolved into it,” Sloan of the current facility, which was originally built in the 1980s. Since then, Sloan has acquired adjacent properties and added buildings. Two years ago, they remodeled the property and added a couple new structures. “When you’re driving past the store, it looks like this 400-foot long strip mall,” he said. “When you come into the building, you realize you’re in four buildings that are connected.” Sloan employs up to 58 employees, depending upon the season.
GREATEST CONCERN
Sloan sees a myriad of growing competitive pressures, from “an overabundance of vehicle inventories” to Internet pressures, and to the increased number of dealers in the middle Tennessee market. Over the past two years, Sloan has felt the effects of an OEM’s decision to add three additional dealerships in the market. Sloan told the OEM that the population would not support the additional business. One of the new dealers has recently closed, but only after heavily discounting the product, and driving down area prices.
WHAT’S HOT?
“We’re very pleased with the Victory product,” Sloan said, noting, “The current model year, ’06, is selling very well. Non-currents models are still challenging. But the sell-through rate on the ’06 has us right on target for where we wanted to be this year with Victory.” Sloan also said Honda Gold Wings continue to be a “perennially good seller for us.”
CUSTOMER BUYING TRENDS
Sloan hasn’t seen a clear leader in product segments, noting the area’s continued urbanization means cruisers and sport bikes are faring well but ATVs and dirt bikes are doing worse. “There’s so many product segments that we sell that are just dead even,” he said. “There are no clear, break-away-from-the-pack winners.”
PARTS AND SERVICE
Sloan calls these areas the “bright spots” of the business. “Apparel really owns a legitimate place in the store and is worthy of your full attention,” he said. That’s certainly the case at Sloan’s dealership. They allocate about 13,000 square feet to PG&A and have nine sales staff devoted strictly to those sales.
PROMOTIONAL HOME RUNS
Sloan notes two marketing events and tactics that have worked: