SP
OTLIGHT
TRADE
WWW.SCOOTERING.COM| 45
Thenumbersgame6: Languages spoken in the call centree
8: Nationalities employed at SIP HQ
12: Football pitches that could have
been covered by invoices in 2018
(SIP’sinvoices are now ‘paperless’)
15: Years in the catalogue for the
longest running item (RZ Mk1PX200
racing exhaust)
114: Current employees
125: Scooters owned by employees
(107Vespas, 13 Ciao and5Lambrettas)
300: Square metres of retail space
at the HQ shop
505:Years riding experience amongst
employees
1,100: Parcels posted daily
2,505:Tonnes of parcels dispatched in
2018
18,488: Kms to SIP’smost distant
customer (Wellington, New Zealand)
20,000: Individual ‘picks’ from the
warehouse every day
50,000: Products in catalogue
59,979:Telephone calls received in
2018
331,000: Kilos of stock in the
warehouse
2,233,549: Individual items held in
stock
in arented basement. The first catalogue
was only four pages long and each parcel
was packed and posted by Ralf or Alex.Perspiration
The mid 1990s werealow point for
scooterists. NOS parts had almost dried
up and the quality of pattern spares varied
considerably.Against that background
Alex and Ralf’sdetermination to provide
quality,innovative parts quickly won them
aloyal group of customers. Amongst their
early trade contacts were names that
would become established as scootering
‘royalty’, including Stefan Onken from
Nordspeed Tuning, Paul Melici from PM
Tuning and Jim Lomas from JL Exhausts.
By 1996 SIP had outgrown the
basement and secured accommodation in
the old Landsberg barracks. This quickly
proved too small to cope with increasing
demand and more warehouse space was
rented nearby.Parts were transferred
between sites using an old Ape three-wheeler.“It was great fun, but took up too
much time and money,” saidAlex. “We
had reached the point where we could
afford our own bespoke premises and June
2016 we moved into the new building.”
As the winner of several architectural
awards, SIP’spremisesare well known
throughout Bavaria andabehind-the-
scenestour makes it obvious that real
effort has gone into making SIPapleasant
working environment.Realisation
Over abeer IaskedRalf aquestionthat’s
always puzzled me:; “What is it about
these old shopping bikes that fills people
with such passion that it allows an
organisation the size of SIP to flourish”?
Ralf thought forawhile before replying:
“Toget the best out of any scooter the
rider must understand it. That means
spending time with it and building a
relationship, just likealover or friend. It’s
somethingthat can’t be easily explained