Date:         Wed, 18 Feb 2004 23:12:44 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      R.I.P. 'Rocky Mountain' Motorworks
In-Reply-To:  <10465960.1077160787162.JavaMail.jrunberg@mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Quoted from the Press Release: "Mid America Motorworks has acquired all
the assets of Rocky Mountain Motorworks, a Colorado based company that
was a leading Volkswagen aftermarket parts and accessories supplier."
Mid-America is a large Chevy Corvette parts retailer that a few years
ago started selling Beetle parts (and a smattering of Bus parts, but no
Vanagon parts) under the name The Real Source.

The Motorworks website has already been taken down. Their headquarters
will be shuttered, most remaining employees let go, and remaining
inventory shipped to Illinois, where Mid America is based. After a very
short transitionary period, Mid America plans to continue the Motorworks
brand name (apparantly minus the "Rocky Mountain" part) as part of their
own company. I suppose they will merge it with The Real Source.

If anyone on the list has an existing order with Motorworks, I wouldn't
panic. The Colorado warehouse is staying in operation for a few more
days to ship out in-stock items on existing orders, and apparantly the
new owners will handle backorders from their Illinois facility when/if
the products come in. Since Mid-America plans to maintain the Motorworks
brand as an ongoing concern, I'm sure they won't want to alienate
existing Motorworks customers. The whole reason for a company to
purchase an established brand name is to capitalize on that brand name's
"goodwill," so they'll want to keep that goodwill. Businesses change
hands all the time. Although The Bus Depot has dealt with Motorworks'
wholesale division (especially some years back, when they were bigger
and we were smaller), by now they were just one of hundreds of companies
that we deal with, so this will have no effect on The Bus Depot or our
customers.

At one time Motorworks was a powerhouse in the VW parts industry,
although they had fallen on hard times in recent years. It's always sad
to see a giant fall, but nice to see that the name will carry on. Best
of luck to the new owners, and to the former Motorworks employees who
are moving on to other things.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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