Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Did Turner buy ECS Tuning?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Did Turner buy ECS Tuning?

    Seems like I read something about that a while back.

    #2
    no, ECS bought turner and pelican parts
    cars beep boop

    Comment


      #3
      Oh, the other way around, interesting! AND Pelican? I've always had good luck with Pelican.

      Comment


        #4
        yeah, ECS is consolidating the industry.
        cars beep boop

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by kronus View Post
          yeah, ECS is consolidating the industry.

          Meaning less competitions and they can monopolize the market.
          sigpic
          327is
          325es
          325es
          318is
          Fiesta ST
          E46 M3

          Comment


            #6
            But FCP Euro for the win. :)
            My 325iX DIY Threads:

            Front Wheel Bearing Replacement

            325iX Rear Subframe Bushings and MUCH more w/pics!

            325iX Steering Rack Replacement, Suspension, & Oil Pan job w/pics!


            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by LateFan View Post
              Oh, the other way around, interesting! AND Pelican? I've always had good luck with Pelican.
              There's a whole story to this. Basically, Will Turner sold out, and ECS gutted the company.
              Build thread

              Bimmerlabs

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by EyExR View Post
                But FCP Euro for the win. :)
                I still can't forget Blunt calling them FCP Scrotum.. :p
                Build thread

                Bimmerlabs

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by dsphil View Post
                  Meaning less competitions and they can monopolize the market.
                  Well, profits are always nice, but a modern company really has to find some way to justify the layers of management that they could probably do without.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    It was more of a hostile takeover.


                    3 years ago today, July 1, 2015, ECS "acquired" Turner Motorsport incorporated, the company I had toiled to help Will Turner build up for 8.5 years. They promised the former owner, a guy I shared a small office with for over 5 years, all sorts of amazing synergies and upsides. We'd share the best of both companies to form a super-knowledgeable, cutting edge source of auto parts with unmatched experience and customer service.

                    Those were all lies.

                    When I arrived at Turner in 2007, they were a small niche / boutique operation that sold a couple million in parts per year, fueled by a handful of true enthusiasts. I had left a solid job at another respected BMW parts outfit for the chance to work for an exciting up-and-coming BMW Tuner that already had a reputation for racing and no-BS parts.

                    When the ECS management team landed at Turner for the first time after the buyout, I was of course guarded. My optimism quickly turned to disgust. My impression of them was smarmy. Ruthless. Greedy. And in some cases, completely inept. Most notably the the two former owners, who's opinion I held as low as one could imagine. They had sold controlling rights to their company only a year before, and were now "Co-CEOs" of the private equity owned entity, an asset of Betram Capital Investments.

                    Many of our numbers were better than theirs. Our customer satisfaction higher, returns lower, vendor relationships deeper, and our employee retention and advancement out of this world. We managed a better profit margin, taboot. (Who knew: When you have happy customers and employees, you can run a good business!) Seeing behind the scenes of Turner Motorsport and ECS Tuning, it was clear -- One was a company that earned its reputation, the other a Wild-West movie scene, pretending to know what they were doing, luring customers in with prices slightly lower than their peers, and growth that stemmed from mostly dumb luck, and past smart employees who had quit along the years. They had no clear vision besides growth-at-any-cost, to inflate their private equity owned LLC so they could dump it to another larger company in a few years and (hopefully) some key players would walk away millionaires.

                    It was official: Will Turner sold his company to the devil. A soulless machine that didn't care about the car community or its employees. It cared about one thing only: Profit.

                    They were insufferable, right out of the gate. I played along for a few months, as they made one foolish or unimaginable decision after another. As the Director of Operations, I had a bird's eye view of the deconstruction and dismemberment of a once great company.

                    I made several trips to ECS headquarters in Wadsworth, OH. What I saw was what I would describe as borderline inhumane treatment of employees. Unnecessary control tactics to ensure NO ONE at ECS had any "tribal knowledge" of their business. Because of this their employees had a demeanor like abused animals. Cameras over every desk. Unbelievably low pay. Tiny tiny cubicles. Unnecessary dress code from the 1940's. Isolated and key-code locked rooms for every department. I was one .of a select few who could freely walk through all of the departments, and see the inner workings of ECS and the people that worked hard behind locked doors.

                    And I really felt bad for them. I felt almost as bad for their customers. Their warehouse was a disorganized hive of slave-like labor, governed by fear and intimidation. Their shipments were POORLY packaged, their process riddled with opportunities for mistakes and human error, and the morale of their employees those the lowest I've ever seen.

                    As an IT and Ecommerce Manager, their system was one of the most poorly cobbled together hackjobs I'd ever seen as well. Their security and disaster recover was a joke. it's no wonder they had troubles with data breaches and massive credit card data hacking. (Google it!) This was 100% the worst working environment I'd ever seen. Run by delusional and inept management who truly believed they'd built the perfect machine. And now fueled by outside PE money and reckless abandon.

                    The Turner buy-out happened in July, and in December of 2015 they unveiled their new "plan" in a small conference room of ECS. It was the former owner, Mr. Turner, myself, the two "co-CEOs", and 3 or 4 members of senior management. I sat in the board room and watched Will Turner's jaw drop as they explained their master plan -- to consolidate the 50 employee Massachusetts based Turner Motorsport with Ohio. Their reasoning after months of research: "It would save $11k in shipping expense and 0.2 days of package transit time. "That's it???" I asked. At the time, Turner Motorsport alone (not including ECS) was spending some $30k a week in shipping. No one researched the advantages of combining the capabilities of both companies. I argued they needed to re-run their numbers for contrast before impulsively vaporizing Turner Motorsport. They had made up their mind and that was that.

                    So on December 15, I became aware that ECS wanted me to lay off the majority of my workforce. The best of the best, in a hot bed of Boston-area talent were about to be out a job around Christmas. A good portion of whom I had hired and trained, and all of which I worked along-side for years. Several employees pre-dated my years of service, including a few with 18-20 years of experience each. No offers of relocation. No concern or compassion. All business. Just to save a few bucks, and (as time would tell) to the chagrin of its customers.

                    The would also dissolve the in-house R&D and production, boasting their plans to send manufacturing to the same Chinese and Mexican companies ECS was already outsourcing to.

                    They'd keep the domain name and 800 number, and 4 sales reps to continue the perception that Turner Motorsport was an independent parts house. They also kept two customer service reps to handle all the shipping errors, damaged parts, wrong parts, and nightmare orders ECS had become so good at creating. They quietly dumpstered thousands of parts and sent millions of dollars worth of inventory (much of which they had no way of selling) to their Ohio warehouse. A once-great all-BMW parts house went from 50 employees to 6, remains to this very today.

                    Strangely they didn't want me to go, though. They wanted my experience (Ecommerce, IT, SEO, Management, etc) however they could keep me. They tried cutting me in on their private equity parachute "pie in the sky" incentive plan that other ECS managers were on. I turned it down. The incentive plan's legal paperwork was a joke. A labyrinth with only 1 outcome that might pay out a modest bonus, mired with a hundred of ways ECS could cut me out and $0 at their discretion.

                    Pass.

                    Instead I made sure the laid off Turner employees got the best severances and treatment I could, and informed WIll Turner his ride with me as his right hand man was over. I quit on the 9th anniversary of my hire date, which was also the 5th year anniversary of launching a revamped Ecommerce platform that increased sales +40% overnight.

                    I still look back on that as an amazing job, with the most amazing people on the planet, that all came to a screeching halt because someone couldn't turn down a 7 figure payout (yes, 7 figure and decidedly not 8.) I often think how different my life and so many others would be had ECS not picked Turner as the first target of acquisition.

                    But they aren't done! ECS very quietly purchased Pelican Parts last fall. Good luck finding any press and PE newswire hoopla, like the Turner acquisition. They have kept this buy-out VERY quiet, as Bertram knows how bad ECS did with Turner "transition." Who will ECS buy next?

                    Do yourself a favor and get VERY picky about where you buy your German/Euro car parts. Starting asking: "Are you owned by ECS Tuning or Bertram Capital Investments?"

                    Read the ECS Glass Door, and know all the bad reports are 100% truth, while the glowing reviews are almost certainly planted by management to combat a dumpster fire that is their HR department.
                    john@m20guru.com
                    Links:
                    Transaction feedback: Here, here and here. Thanks :D

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Very interesting. I have purchased OEM and cheep Chinese plastic Audi parts from ECS. Didn't even use some of them - they were junk. Have purchased mostly Volvo and Audi parts from FCP, although they used to be way better in the old days. Have purchased Audi and BMW parts from Pelican. I think the Porsche guys are pretty loyal to Pelican - wonder how that will change.

                      I have an email part # question in to ECS from a week ago with no answer, as they were the only place I found the OEM door lock assembly from realOEM.

                      When I search on Blunttech, I don't find a lot of the parts I want, but I'm under the impression from r3v that you just email them and they'll get it? Kind of nice to be able to see it tho. The things I've bought from them were all really good, but it was all phone or email or thru a r3v thread, not off the website.


                      So is the Turner Motorsport racing team a separate entity?
                      Last edited by LateFan; 01-16-2019, 12:46 PM.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Quick someone send blunt some nudes so he stays happy and doesnt consider being bought out
                        Simon
                        Current Cars:
                        -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                        Make R3V Great Again -2020

                        Comment


                          #13
                          The BluntTech website isn't very good, but if you email them part numbers, you can get whatever you want. I only order from them, or occasionally Amazon if there is free 2 day shipping.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by 2mAn View Post
                            Quick someone send blunt some nudes so he stays happy and doesnt consider being bought out
                            If only there were a thread for that, hmm...

                            *Maybe not for what folks might send to Blunt, but you get the drift.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Interesting to read about the ECS takeover of Turner Motorsport...

                              Interestingly about 20 years ago, something similar happened in my city - there was a small, but very well respected company here in Adelaide with the unassuming name of "Adelaide Engine Service" that specialised in european engines. They were both an independent parts supplier (did their own imports of new and used parts from Germany, and had very reasonable prices for top quality parts) and they ran a full engine machining and reconditioning service specialising in Porsche, BMW and Mercedes engines. They were revered by the Porsche racing community as their machining and engine building services were top notch, and they supplied many independent Porsche racing teams Australia wide.

                              The owner then was wooed by Precision International, a parts supplier with national coverage who bought the business. Ultimately the owner was just a silent partner in the operations and a very loyal team of enthusiasts worked there and had made the company what it was, in turn making the owner millions.

                              Initially Precision International said that the acquisition was to improve their own company as the shop specialised in high end work that they couldn't do themselves, and they were going to roll out their working model to start up shops nationally, but within a year Adelaide Engine Service was shut down.

                              Multiple millions of $$ in inventory was sold at scrap value... pallets of fully reconditioned Porsche flat 6s, BMW 6s, and Mercedes 6s + V8s went for a song. I was only in my early 20s at the time, so managed to pick up a couple of manual e30 gearboxes for dirt cheap, but if I'd had cash I'd have bought a lot more!
                              My e30: OEM+ with M30B35

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X