SMD surprised by Team C move away.

[mark christopher]

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.

[shark]

Was in the SMD section about an hour ago .

[Dave Dodd]

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

[john333]

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!

[shark]

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

[Joe J]

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.

[racingdwarf]

Originally Posted by Joe J

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.

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

[fidspeed]

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

[Aire valley]

Originally Posted by Joe J

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.

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..!

[john333]

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!

[neallewis]

Originally Posted by Aire valley

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..!

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.

[hazeandfizz]

Real sorry to hear that buddy .

Hope things work out for you.

James.

Originally Posted by john333

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!

[deano43]

Originally Posted by john333

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!

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.

[john333]

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.

[neallewis]

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.

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by shark

Was in the SMD section about an hour ago .

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

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