Harding Performance is no longer an APR dealer distributor????

[sergioscirocco]

What is the meaning of this any one knows what is going on is this for real?

[woofy]

In my industry it happens when they see enough sales to go direct. I always find it dodgy when companies do that.

[tigger73]

Wow that is pretty stiff.

To spend so much time/effort in building up a brand only to have it ripped out under your feet.

I'm sure there's going to be legals involved, however it's going to be a hard one as unless it's spelled out in the distributor agreement the jurisdiction that covers the contract and then where do you take a US company to court? Go to the US??

As good as the APR product is/was, what made it such a strong brand here in the market was the back-up/support for the dealer network, stocking, warehousing, tuning for local conditions and all the marketing by preparing/running cars in Hot Tuner, etc. The APR cars were always the benchmark and the ones every other tuner was out to beat.

So sorry to hear that this has happened to you Guy.

[mk7wolfr]

From a customer's point of view all will be "business as normal" with your local APR dealer. The dealer network is still there, only change is that HP isn't the Australian distributor.
Guy is a legend when it comes to automotive genius & I'll be watching out for his next venture. Should be good ... Whatever he does!
It's a bit of a kick in the teeth after all the R&D + product development he worked through.
He is APR Australia ... big shoes to fill ...

[Greg Roles]

It's bull**** when big companies do this, I see it all the time in the medical game, a little bloke spends his time and effort building a brand, then the HQ comes in and steamrolls them in an effort to make greater profits. As much as Mr Harding isn't exactly my best mate, nobody deserves that, and I can only imagine his massive disappointment right now.

[JustCruisn]

Wow this really sux.
What will Guy do with all those APR number plates ?
I probably wont use APR for my next tune, based on this news.

[idaho]

... and then where do you take a US company to court? Go to the US?? ...

Not necessarily in these days of free trade agreements. Depending on the level of agreement it is possible to take action against someone in another country from your home country and the respondent can't just ignore it. Although I don't know if it applies between the USA and Australia.

[h100vw]

It's bull**** when big companies do this, I see it all the time in the medical game, a little bloke spends his time and effort building a brand, then the HQ comes in and steamrolls them in an effort to make greater profits. As much as Mr Harding isn't exactly my best mate, nobody deserves that, and I can only imagine his massive disappointment right now.

LOL Greg, Yeah a shame, he won't disappear overnight though. Plenty of irons in his fires.

A similar thing happened in the UK a while back when APR and Awesome GTI split. APR came back and opened up APR UK.

I can see something similar happening here.

Gavin

[heath55]

What does it mean for availability of APR tunes?

[tigger73]

What does it mean for availability of APR tunes?

I guess we will find out in coming weeks...