4Plus - you don't want to miss this thread (1 Viewer)

[USOffRoad]

Unfortunately you will be seeing more of this. I've had several of my friendly competitors reach out to me in the last month or so stating that they will likely be shutting down or are in dire straits. Some of this is in relation to folks expanding greatly prior to the last few years when the economy was strong and expanding and now that the economy has gotten tough sales drop and folks can't sustain their newly increased overhead. Not saying that this is what happened with 4P but it's certainly what is happening to others.

Expect to see more of this in the Toyota off road world...

 

[sogncab]

I think many industries are feeling it.

Anytime there's a boom, (whether natural or engineered), there will be a bust to level things off again.

My business, we've been running flat out for basically three years. It's starting to get sketchy though. Usually my crystal ball gives me about six months of clarity on how things are. Right now I can only see about two months out, after that things go black. It's been that way most of 23', work still keeps coming, but I was booked out almost a year at one point. You can get cocky when that happens and forget the slow times, and forget that they can come back

 

[USOffRoad]

Absolutely. We also own a Real Estate company that specializes in Farm & Ranch...that's dead, residential barely has a heartbeat in rural areas, interest rates are up, mortgage rates are up and people are holding on to their cash/liquidity. Not to get in to politics but the same thing happened during Obama then the week after Trump was elected, not when he took office, I watched millions of dollars of oil & gas projects get released (I was doing that then) that companies had been sitting on....they knew they had a pro business admin about to take office....so some of this is confidence in a predictable economy, which we do NOT have right now so folks are sitting on cash. In our industry no one really needs bumpers or a winch, they need to eat and clothe their kids, pay rent...so that extra disposable income has been eaten up by inflation and increased taxes etc. along with...in some sectors... loss of business.

I've spent most of my life in the automotive world and every single year around late July to early September things always died off... last minute vacations, buying school clothes, etc took priority... over the last 3 previous years things were booming and there was residual covid/government money still floating around, people had cash/savings...this year was back to 'normal' in that it died off in July...even June. People just don't have the cash to spend like they did.

I told my wife last year, this next 12-24 months will be survival of the fittest...we've watched as droves of real estate agents have bailed and the same thing will go for lots of markets, including off road. Hunker down, don't spend on expansion and reserve all the cash you can as it's gonna get uglier before it's said and done.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Absolutely. We also own a Real Estate company that specializes in Farm & Ranch...that's dead, residential barely has a heartbeat in rural areas, interest rates are up, mortgage rates are up and people are holding on to their cash/liquidity. Not to get in to politics but the same thing happened during Obama then the week after Trump was elected, not when he took office, I watched millions of dollars of oil & gas projects get released (I was doing that then) that companies had been sitting on....they knew they had a pro business admin about to take office....so some of this is confidence in a predictable economy, which we do NOT have right now so folks are sitting on cash. In our industry no one really needs bumpers or a winch, they need to eat and clothe their kids, pay rent...so that extra disposable income has been eaten up by inflation and increased taxes etc. along with...in some sectors... loss of business.

I've spent most of my life in the automotive world and every single year around late July to early September things always died off... last minute vacations, buying school clothes, etc took priority... over the last 3 previous years things were booming and there was residual covid/government money still floating around, people had cash/savings...this year was back to 'normal' in that it died off in July...even June. People just don't have the cash to spend like they did.

I told my wife last year, this next 12-24 months will be survival of the fittest...we've watched as droves of real estate agents have bailed and the same thing will go for lots of markets, including off road. Hunker down, don't spend on expansion and reserve all the cash you can as it's gonna get uglier before it's said and done.

So if I'm interpreting this correctly, I should absolutely use cash on hand to buy a bumper for my barely street legal recreational offroad toy from 4Plus. I accept your guidance.

 

[USOffRoad]

So if I'm interpreting this correctly, I should absolutely use cash on hand to buy a bumper for my barely street legal recreational offroad toy from 4Plus. I accept your guidance.

I'm not certain that's what I was suggesting specifically but if that's how you interpreted it then by all means...

 

[sogncab]

Hunker down, don't spend on expansion and reserve all the cash you can as it's gonna get uglier before it's said and done.

Agreed 100% I survived 08 because I had very little overhead. I also had a very young business that wasn't very productive yet either.

I told my banker a couple of months ago, when things come back around, I'll be in here signing my life away and borrowing every dollar I can. I've got my eyes set on creating income that is a little more passive.