Text/photo: OA Isdahl

In April, AMD lost its agency for Triumph after 30 years as a dealer. Geir Arnestad and AMD have asked to maintain their status as a service point for their customers, but today the Scandinavian importer in Sweden has flatly refused. As of tomorrow, this will come to an inexorable end and AMD will no longer be able to serve old and new customers. The customers we have spoken to understand absolutely nothing about this and are quite frustrated. Geir Arnestad apologizes to all his customers.

AMD has been a dealer for about 30 years and has about 150 years of expertise in the brand. Three years ago, AMD was the largest dealer of the brand in the Nordic region and still sells a lot of Triumph. This obviously means little to the Swedish importer, which is closing the door on Triumph and AMD as of tomorrow. “We’ve spoken to several Triumph customers who understand little or nothing about this. The customers we have spoken to say that they will still use AMD or sell and buy another brand.

Geir Arnestad apologizes to his customers and must now discontinue this part of the portfolio as soon as possible. Triumph is not very cooperative and therefore seems to be less concerned about what AMD’s customer group might think about this. So we’ll see how it goes in the longer term.

The Norwegian dealership structure has been changing over the past year and Speed Motorcenter in Sandefjord received a similar cold shower from BMW earlier this year, they were also not allowed to be a service point unless they accepted the terms that were set. Of course, this is noticed by Norwegian motorcyclists, who are fairly loyal to their own dealer, and we have seen in similar cases in the past that many customers simply switch brands to stay with the dealer they trust.

So we’ll see what lessons Triumph learns from this case, it takes time to build trust and loyalty but only seconds or a wrong decision to tear the same down.

Competence, predictability and trust are important

Motorcycles are like our children, they are important to us, we only choose the best and the best environments to take good care of what we hold dear, and as owners we need to trust those who repair or maintain our bikes. If this trust is broken, it will be difficult to re-establish it.

Regardless of what the Nordic importer does now, Norwegian motorcyclists must be able to feel that they are being taken seriously, that good and correct choices are being made that meet our needs and build trust, credibility and a degree of predictability.

So far, the Triumph owners we have spoken to understand little of this decision.

Geir Arnestad and AMD will return to any plans for a discontinuation of the brand with associated equipment and spare parts, he tells us today.