I had an unexpected encounter with a not entirely unwelcome stranger as the new year kicked off. Just after new year's day, I was waiting on the kerb by a roadside, looking to slip through a gap between a car and a motorcycle as soon as the traffic cleared.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar-looking logo on the motorcycle, but I didn't pay it too much heed. I have never actually seen a Super Soco on the streets of Sydney before, except for the ones I've seen displayed in dealerships, and so I assumed it was a false alarm.
But no: I had a closer look and there were the words 'Super Soco' before me, plain as day. I was standing right next to a sleek red Super Soco TC. So struck was I by this unexpected sight, that I tried to take a photo of the rare bird.
Alas, as I walked away I realised my efforts at photography had been a dismal failure. No worries, I thought. I'll just circle back on my return trip. But by then it was too late: when I returned to the scene less than ten minutes later, I discovered that my quarry had fled.
This was the first time that I have ever seen a Super Soco 'in the wild'. Hopefully, it will prove an auspicious sign.
I'd be curious to know if anyone else here has spotted a Super Soco in the real-world. By now, there would surely have to be hundreds of them in towns and cities around Australia, considering the number of motorcycle dealerships who are stocking them around the country.
Anyway, if the brands sold by this company start becoming a familiar sight on local streets, I can't see how that would be inimical for the share price.
Getting on to the subject matter of this thread, in my last post here, I postulated that the dispute between Vmoto and the Super Soco company is probably not a major issue in the short-term, but may be of more significance down the track, when the next generation of motorcycles are released.
So, last month, just prior to Christmas, I thought I might follow up this line of enquiry, going straight to the horse's mouth, putting the question directly to a Super Soco representative. My specific question was whether the company had plans to release any new motorcycles in future.
This is from the email response I received from their representative:
...Sure, we will continue launche our new products in the future. Actually we have launched our new pedal CT Titan in Sep of 2021,Chongqing, China. And we will launche it in The European next year, we will bring new products as well.
If you are interested in CT Titan, you could open this website and follow our ins...I found it interesting that the first thing that they mentioned was the CT Titan. I didn't broach the subject at all in my initial email.
Something else that I found interesting in the reply was the mention of the CT launch in September 2021.
It is curious to observe that last September seems to have been the point at which some sellers decided to start opportunistically dump stock every time the Vmoto share price rallied. I think some insiders must have picked up at the CT launch that something had gone awry with the relationship between the two companies.
After September, Vmoto also kicked off its re-branding effort, promoting the Vmoto label to the detriment of the Super Soco brand. So, it seems to me that the CT Titan might have represented the 'line in the sand'.
All things considered, I would guess that Vmoto has a strong hold over the rights over the products launched prior to the CT, but it looks like Super Soco have got dibs on the Titan. I am speculating here, but it seems likely. I've looked back over the VMT announcements over the past six months, and I haven't been able to find any mention of the CT.
One other detail that I found interesting in the email was the mention of Europe. That adds to the suspicion that the EICMA event in Milan last November might have been the last chance for the Vmoto Soco group to fully bask in the limelight of the Super Soco brand, which was presumably why they were attempting to deflect the spotlight onto the Vmoto brand.
I think the company did manage to attract the attention they were looking for - I noticed one French automotive website did a
feature on the Stash just yesterday, and the stated price tag of 4690 Euros/ circa 7500 AUD looks attractive- however, they now need to deliver on the promise. If the Stash gets strong reviews, I suspect that could potentially serve as a catalyst for a share price rebound.
Before I sign off, I have to say that I was a little bit alarmed last week by the suggestion of one poster last week that a representative of the company might be posting on this forum. I know it happens here sometimes, but in my opinion, it is seldom a good sign.
Some years ago, I got an unpleasant surprise when I picked up that a post I had read on one of the Hotcopper forums had been penned by the MD of a company in which I was a shareholder. Not long afterwards, I realised he was posting regularly on that forum, hiding behind a number of 'burner' accounts.
I should have paid more attention to it, but I rationalised the transgression on the grounds that the MD might just have been trying to communicate with shareholders. Of course, in the wash-up, it turned out that the company wasn't being run properly, and no doubt that had much to do with the fact that the executive team were spending half the day trying to ramp the company on Hotcopper.
Since that experience, I try to keep an eye out for this type of conduct on the forums that I follow on this site.
One function that is quite handy in this regard is the 'activity stream', which can be accessed through the 'Notifications' tab, above. I tend to keep an eye on this function if I notice something odd, such as when a large number of new posters emerge on a forum over a short time frame. If you watch the 'stream' for a while, I find that you sooner or later work out whether or not if they are independent, or if there is some type of relationship between different accounts.
As an example, in the second half of 2020, a large number of new posters appeared on this forum within the space of just three months. Having been burnt by that experience with the other company, I kept a wary eye on these new accounts, however, after following the activity stream for a while, while it became evident that most of these were indeed 'puppet' accounts, it was clear that it wasn't the management who were behind it. It was pretty obvious it was just one shareholder, one with too much time on their hands, you'd assume.
In the years I've been on this forum, despite all of the shenanigans that have gone on, I have to say that I have never seen any evidence that the management have engaged in attempts to 'ramp' the company on this platform, and I have to give them kudos for that.
(20min delay)