Joe Curry wrote:
>
> George Richardson wrote:
> >
> > If TRF goes bankrupt, Charles may have no control over what happens to the
> > tooling.It gets sold by the people liquidating the company.
> > I've been involved in a bankruptcy where the tooling was sold as scrap, even
> > though there were offers to buy it.
>
> So, maybe the answer is, "If TRF files for Bankruptcy, we should all
> pool our resources and buy it issuing shares to the contributors
> according to how much they chip in!" Then we would have to elect a
> board of directors, a president and .... Oh well, it was a thought!
The issues of tooling and rights to parts are sticky ones. For years,
our authorized parts distributor was part of a larger holding company
comprising all of Greyhound Dial's, later Dial's, transportation
companies. Some tooling they bought, some tooling we bought. Then, when
our company was sold to the first Canadian corporation to own us, part
of the deal was to allow the authorized parts distributor to continue in
that capacity for five years.
Even though we built the parts for the vehicles, we did not have the
rights to sell them. (!) Now, after the five-year period has expired,
because the paperwork was not done well, there is considerable wrangling
over who owns what tooling, and to complicate matters further, some of
the tooling is owned by third-party part suppliers, since the cost of
tooling was calculated into the price we paid to have the part built for
us.
More interestingly, during that five-year period, one of our competitors
went bankrupt. Months went by with several interested parties, including
us, waiting to see what the bankruptcy master would decide regarding
disposal of assets. While the competitor's production was discontinued,
there was still a viable parts operation, which included all tooling for
their parts and for several other makes, as well. The entire parts
operation was put up for auction, and the proceeds would go to the
creditors.
Our then-authorized parts distributor won that auction. A year or so
afterwards, their parent organization announced, even though they had
sold us three years before, that they might like to get back into the
transit bus business. They clearly thought that having purchased the
rights to build spare parts and the tooling for it also gave them the
rights to produce the entire vehicle.... Wrong. Rights to produce the
vehicle were a completely different animal, and those were not purchased
at auction.
All of which is mostly to describe the relationship of both rights and
tooling. Most of us probably don't know the charter relationship between
BMIHT and its "approved" suppliers. Given the term, "approval," what is
likely meant by that is the right to use the symbols and logos and names
associated with those parts and little more, although there may be some
requirements to generally meet OEM standards, or to purchase certain
amounts of parts from British suppliers, in exchange for those rights to
names and logos. The rights to any tooling TRF or any other supplier
might have built, at their expense, to supply no longer available OEM
parts would certainly be theirs alone, and would be considered assets of
the company were it to go into bankruptcy.
As regards all "BMIHT-approved" suppliers, that relationship could
change, since the rights to OEM parts are retained by the company, or
its assignees, in this case, BMIHT and its parent, BMW. If BMIHT, for
example, decided to change the relationship, insisting that only
"authorized" suppliers could offer parts described as "OEM," or "OEM
approved equals," that might radically change how and where we in the US
buy parts for our cars.
Under those conditions, I could build and sell any part I liked for any
Triumph, as long as there was not a patent currently in force on that
item. But, I could not put the logo "Stanpart" or the OEM part number on
it, nor could I advertise it as an OEM part, even if it were equal in
appearance and quality to the original, unless I made prior arrangements
with the holder of the rights to that part.
Any one or more of the current large suppliers of Triumph parts could
cease operations at any time, for a variety of reasons--bankruptcy,
insufficient profit, or local laws and regulations adversely affecting
their operations, to name a few.
But, if there's enough money to be made in the business, someone will
fill the void created by a company's departure. That's fairly certain.
Equally certain is that the company providing the best quality with the
best service at competitive prices is going to get the larger share of
the total business. If one firm or another fails in that effort, other
companies will benefit, and perhaps, new suppliers will enter the
market.
This is not an ever-expanding business. The number of Triumphs,
unfortunately, is now finite. Hopefully, more cars will be resurrected
than are destroyed in accidents, etc., and that will increase the
available sales volume to the benefit of both sellers and purchasers of
parts. We all applaud the likes of those here and elsewhere who are
putting Triumphs back into useful form, because it benefits us all and
preserves the marque. Some credit, therefore, has to be given to those
supplying parts in that effort, even if their level of service is at
times uneven.
And, on that note, I depart shortly to take delivery of the latest need
for resurrection, a `64 TR4, CT25945LO.
Cheers.
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