SMD surprised by Team C move away.
 

It is with much sadness that as of 1st January 2014 SMD are no longer the UK distributor for Absima / Team C.

We were only given this news Monday (16th December) and were informed that Absima will be handling distribution themselves from that date.

Any questions from shops or individuals about future sales or service need to be directed at Absima as they haven't given us any details of what or how they plan to progress.

Any oustanding orders from us should be fulfilled as normal as we have a last delivery from Absima on its way.

What the future holds for Team C in the UK is unclear, but we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our team drivers and club drivers for making Team C TM2 the most talked about car of 2013.

Was in the SMD section about an hour ago .

Terrible news for SMD :thumbdown:
This is going affect over half of all club/Recreational drivers across the country if parts become difficult to obtain. :(

This is a comment from me personally....I would like to apologise to all the drivers I've talked into driving a TM2 over recent months only to have this dropped on us with no notice. Apart from the deep joy of possibly looking for a new job I will have to find a new car to drive, and after the TM2 that wont be an easy one!

No apologies needed John . Great car .
Hope everything works out ok for you .

I know and facebook. But not everyone looks in the individual sections.

Sad news as smd have changed many drivers perspective on team c

Harsh news & in a terrible manor, my job has gone, John's job has gone, Jono's job is gone all in 1 foul swoop 7 days before Christmas.

What a nice Christmas present from TeamC / Absima - Happy Christmas TeamC and thanks.

Real sorry to hear that buddy :thumbdown:.

Hope things work out for you.

James.

If this is true what a terrible way to treat people who work directly or indirectly for you, feel very sorry for you guys.

Also feel sorry for anyone who has just spent there hard earned on a car to now find spares could be an issue and it's re sail value has just dropped through the floor:cry:

not had the pleasure of a TM2

i know its drivers/owners hard earned cash invested in a great product which SMD have fought hard to raise the profile of ,Im sure parts will still be available

but that pales into insignificance compared to 3 guys possibly losing their jobs and income

I hope they find alterantive employment or something is sorted out

best of luck fellows

Fid

What a sad state of affairs, not to mention very poor timing.

SMD have done a brilliant job of building credibility behind TeamC, a brand which had very little and is now accepted within the RC community.

Feel for John and the other guys at SMD, who have been excellent in supporting TeamC owners, it really leaves a bad taste the way this has been handled.

Sad state of affairs.

You guys were great in my hour of need with parts. Hope it all works out.

Very sorry to hear about this guys. The brand is pushed by SMD and then drops this bomb. I hope something comes along to keep everyone going at SMD as youre all top chaps.

Gutted.

It's a shame how emerging companies/manufactures do not realise how much personalities are behind a products success. More estabished companies learn this from expierience and thats why the stick with trusted distributors and spend money on good quality team drivers, its a shame Team C/Abisima havent learnt this quicker. A year ago who even really knew anything about Team C, Team C had a lucky break with the TM2 but its Jamie & his people at SMD that have built on that product to build Team C into a trusted brand here in the UK!

Good luck to the SMD guys in whatever the future holds but shame on TC and Abisima, your are not nice peoples! :thumbdown:

Basically what is known AS A CEE U NEXT TUESDAY Trick my thought goes out to all at SMD at this time especially before Xmas to when they have all worked extremely hard to bring the product into the U.K and been able to make it work and grow

Really sorry for the guys and this won't help them now but if this company won't support the UK trade, we should all go back to calling it Team Cheese and vote with our wallets.

Once their market share returns to what it was pre-SMD they may realise their error.

Hope you guys get sorted soon.

Real shame to have this sprung on anyone. Especially this time of year.

Unfortunatley these days there is very little loyalty in business.

Hope you guys find something soon.


All the best.

Agree with the previous comments. SMD and the people who work there are the reason why a lot of people (myself and my son included) drive TeamC cars.

I wish everyone at SMD every success going forwards.

I appreciate the current financial climate but pretty poor for team c / absima to do this a few days before Xmas to these guys. Best of luck guys in finding other work.

Is this not what Team C basically did to Ansmann 2 years ago? ...oh and of course TQ racing in the states..and I think another but I forget who. Seems a trend to me.

I hope SMD will weather this and find other, better deals in the near future.

K

Terrible news for those whose jobs are on the line, hope it works out for you all. I only recently entered the world of TM2 and although I love it, the way this happened to you all has put me off giving the brand anymore of my money.

Really sad news guys, hope you all find some more work soon.

I for one will have to think carefully now before spending any money on my team C car as if the parts support is disappearing then maybe its time to look for a different brand.

Don't race any Team C cars but a great and valid comment :thumbsup:

Fairly obvious that the RC fraternity should completely boycott Team C / Absima in support of SMD.. There are plenty of good alternatives out there....

Hard to believe that 3 people were employed by SMD purely on Team C products..!

Thanks for all the nice comments guys, it means a lot.

Although the timing and notice of this change are very poor, SMD were there before TeamC came along, and we're going to work extra hard to make sure it's still there when its gone! :thumbsup:

Well to be fair to SMD, they (customers) should help clear their current stock of parts and kits, so SMD are not left with stock they can't sell, however a difficult choice if you were just planning on getting one, or were expecting one at Christmas. I guess current racers of the car can try keep it going until spares have gone from the channel, then it's probably a shelf queen or fit for the bin.

I know SMD did a good job of building a buzz for the car, it was very popular, though not so common in the Yorkshire area with it's low traction tracks, there were a few around. Shame though for those that supported the brand and SMD/staff.

Does make you want to stick with a more established brand, knowing it will be supported and not instantly dropped by the manufacturer. who knows, maybe the IP and molds will be reused by some Chinese maker knocking out cheap kits? wouldn't surprise me given the various ansmann and other flavours being sold previously.

john mate you never talked anyone into something they didnt want to do even me with my 2 x tm2 cars or my tc02c you were just doing your job and promoting the brand and the tm2 is a great car so a lot of people who you were promoting the car too were amazed how good it was and i carnt remember anyone saying they regretted getting a tm2 in fact the opposite.
The problem people are facing is will spares still be ready available or should they sell their team c cars in support of smd and use another brand, personally i love my tm2 but if spares become hard to get then its not much use to me and as your a personal friend feel my heart is not with team c because that personal touch from smd will be missing for support either on set-ups or suppling your local model shop with kits and spares quickly in my case. I am still undecided about what to do but its seems absima used smd to get a foot hold in the uk market and now the hard work has been done they want to run the show them selfs well we will see whats what and how people vote but as we dont dont actually know what absima plan to do next with the uk market maybe they should address this issue on here and explain there reason for this decision.

Speaking purely as a lover of the rc sport, and not an smd employee for the moment...I can't see there being any kind of problem with spares availability once the initial swap over has settled down, assuming of course that their new uk office manager isn't a complete arse hole.

I have no idea how or when they are going to get in touch with shops etc, but they need to get cracking ASAP.

AH I see, they are looking to build their own channel or appoint a new (maybe bigger) distributor, given the UK market for the team C product after the hard work from the SMD team to create and build it.

The "right" thing to do would be to take the staff into the new organisation (should they want to go). There is a process for this: tupe

If, lets say a larger kit shifter has decided they want the piece of the market and done a deal with team C then of course, the loyal customers of SMD should boycott the new one. On the other hand if customers have invested, then its good to know they will still be able to get their parts, however it would surely create a bad feeling for those racers who want to remain loyal to their local shop. I'm sure SMD will get over the bump, and come back stronger with their other, and future brands.

Wonder how this will impact drivers such as Kevin Lee? I know he wasn't an SMD driver but......
Maybe this is why he is running absima electrics rather than Dualsky etc.

I agree with everyone that this situation is bang out of order and truly feel for those involved. Especially those nice chaps like John (top bloke) etc who may lose their jobs!! :(

However, lets focus on these poor chaps. DIRECT Absima drivers such as Kev will have to run what products are in their contract and doubt it had any bearing on this decision and SMD.

I wanted this thread to stay focussed on this terrible news thats all

Matt

This is how I feel, I'm really gutted for the guys at SMD that it appears will be losing their jobs, they have all provided such great promotion & back-up support for the brand which really makes this such a kick in the teeth :-/

I really love my TM2 - it really has pushed up my level of performance a notch or two, but somehow looking at it now I feel like I want to replace it with something else, I sure spares & backup will soon be provided through another UK channel but, I don't want to run/support a brand that treats it's associated companies & it's employees like this.

Got to say, I feel the same at the moment.

I understand that SMD has done a great job and managed to shift lots of cars in the UK. From this a manufacturer may deem the market important enough to open a subsid office themselves to take a bigger slice.. thats just business and often happens.

But doing it the week before christmas and completely by surprise in such a short period is just not acceptable and shows a ruthless edge to them that I do not like.

They have lost a lot of respect and credibility doing this.. time maybe to look elsewhere for a new car...

One thing is for sure, if SMD can keep going without TeamC products I will always support them as they are superb.. fingers crossed.

The same here.Team C would be nowhere in the UK without the promotion and support Jamie and the lads have given the brand in the last 12 months or so.
A real kick in the nuts...

Playing devils advocate for a minute.

Presumably there was a contract in place for SMD to distribute Team C stuff for a certain period and this will end on 31st Dec? - Team C may have just chosen not to renew that contract, as is their right. Or if the contract has been terminated early there will have been certain conditions to be fulfilled that both parties will have agreed to at the outset - SMD may be disappointed but it shouldn't have been completely surprised by this development.

Also would their be a similar response if the shoe was on the other foot?

Like I say I'm playing devils advocate here because there is always two sides to a story but I sincerely hope the 3 chaps mentioned at risk of losing their jobs are ok.

Seems to be a fair few tm2s cropping up in the for sale section and ebay after this news... I think abisma will suffer for this idiotic decision.

no, this isn't correct.

In what way?

Was there a contract at all?
Was it not renewed or was it terminated early?

not really our business is it ?

its enough for whatever reason that 3 rc guys may be unemployed

and by the way john puts it it doesnt sound like like SMD were expecting it


good luck fellas

Well not ordinarily no but this is a forum, It's for discussions, debates and opinion that's their function, so before I sharpened my pitchfork and went on a witch hunt against Team C I thought I might see if there was another side to the story/any other pertinent detail that may be relevant.

Like I already said, devils advocate really.

Team C / Absima :thumbdown: (that better?)