FIVE QUESTIONS: How Florida retailer is building Chinese import biz

The name, Bintelli, is quite close to Benelli. Is that intentional?
We felt that Bintelli was different enough to proceed. When you break apart the name, bin is relating to the Chinese origin while telli is relating to the fact that our models are using many upgraded components often seen on European models.

Your PR materials mention that you have an “extensive” parts inventory — how extensive? And where are the parts?
All parts are warehoused in Gainesville. Many of the other distributors of Chinese scooters in America have major issues with parts availability. We currently have a graveyard of scooters in our warehouse that were purchased from other suppliers over the last year, none of which who [had] the parts available to fix brand-new scooters that arrived with issues. Unlike other importers who use their free part credit with the factories as a discount off of their total, we import thousands of dollars of parts with every container.

Plastic sets, front forks, hardware, and other parts that others say aren’t available are all available at Bintelli. If for some reason we ever run out of a part that a dealer needs immediately to satisfy a customer concern, we won’t make them wait four to eight weeks; we’ll get the part sent by air right away. We currently have 4,000 sq. ft. dedicated to parts organization and storage, and have the ability to increase that number by 6,500 sq. ft. when needed by adding onto the warehouse.
 
Will you be securing retailers in, say, the automotive or specialty service sectors — i.e. Pep Boys?
Absolutely not. Our distribution and dealer network will be done the correct way. We want dealerships that take pride in their customer support and have the staff and resources able to achieve the customer satisfaction that we require. All of our dealers are going to be given exclusive territories because there is no way to succeed in the powersports industry if someone down the street from you has the exact same products. We do extensive research on our dealer applicants to ensure they are worthy of promoting the Bintelli brand.
Do you offer floorplanning?
We are currently in talks with GE Capital to offer our dealerships floorplan options. We hope to have this completed shortly.
 
Finally, how many U.S. retail outlets does the company foresee for the Bintelli brand in 2012, 2013?
We are not going to force the issue. We don’t want to set up 200 dealers just for the sake of having 200 dealers. We want to be able to service the dealers we have with both inventory and parts support, so we’re taking the beginning stages slowly and making sure that the dealerships we sign up are ones we want to associate our brand with.

While we do not have specific numbers in mind, we would be very happy with 25 quality dealers in our first year, and possibly 50 in our second. If we have more dealerships apply that we feel would be a good fit, we will gladly extend our network beyond that, but we aren’t going to expand just for the need to expand.

A quality dealership that truly “gets it” is what we’re looking for. Someone who stands behind their sale, takes care of their customer, and realizes the true value in all of the upgrades and features that we are including within our brand and products.