Del Amo brings Wow! factor with new store

Power 50 dealer moves Orange County location

Imagine you’re driving down the highway. Now off in the distance, you see a large glass tower shimmering on the skyline. What could it be? Del Amo Motorsports has an answer for that question — it’s the newest edition to the Del Amo family, located in Orange County, Calif.

In March, Del Amo hosted a free BBQ event to promote its new Santa Ana, Calif., location. The first 50 attendees received a $10 gift card and a priceless chance to see the developing dealership up close. This third location is in addition to the existing Long Beach and Redondo Beach dealerships.

Del Amo co-owner Scott King said the event was quite successful with nearly 200 participants, about double what a typical Saturday event attendance would’ve drawn. “We opened this store up a month ago, and we’re at the final stages of completion. … The weekend BBQ had an excellent turnout,” he told Powersports Business in March. “It was our first big Saturday in the store.”

King said that many people are drawn to the dealership’s seven-story tower and its easy visibility from the highway. The tower, once completed, will display the dealership’s overflow bike inventory, serving as a beacon to enthusiasts for miles around. “Typically a dealer would keep these bikes in crates and storage, but now we have some expensive storage,” Scott laughed. “When you drive by, being an enthusiast or not, it has a Wow! factor.”

In addition the tower, a large bridge is also under construction. Customers will drive underneath it to enter the dealership’s parking lot. The 80-foot bridge is held up by a pair of 16-foot-high “D” and “A” letters, which adds even more to the Wow! factor.

While the store is currently open for daily operations and the interior is complete, the bridge and tower are still under construction, with completion scheduled for April. Del Amo will host a grand opening in May after a yearlong construction process. The Orange County location will replace the previous Costa Mesa location that opened in April 2014. King said in preparing to relocate a dealership, there are always new surprises.

“Hitting the build-out times was always a challenge, but that’s the biggest one. Everything else we were pretty prepared for,” he added. Del Amo Motorsports of Orange County will carry Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki and recently added brands Suzuki and Polaris.

King said the dealership doubled its staff in the fourth quarter of 2015 to prepare for the move. “We bought the Costa Mesa location with the intention of relocating it. We went from 5,000 square feet to 50,000,” he said. “The staff that was at Costa Mesa in December is all here now.”

The transition to a new location went well overall, and King said that the dealership will use social media to promote the new location in 2016. Del Amo employs a full-time social media marketing coordinator among its three locations to help facilitate online engagement and dealership awareness.

A 2015 Powersports Business Power 50 recipient, Del Amo understands the importance of taking care of its customers and reinforces staff training to promote a high standard of support.

“2015 was a good year; it was up, and we have budgeted for a 2016 increase. We also want to continue our customer service level; we’re a Pro Yamaha dealer, and we’re very involved in monitoring CRI at the OEM level, along with Yelp and Google reviews.”

The Del Amo Motorsports group has received multiple accolades for its customer service and impressive inventory. Recently, the Redondo Beach location was named the Best Motorcycle Dealer by EasyReaderNews.com.

Even with a glamorous new facility, paying attention to the details will remain a hallmark of Del Amo’s success.