NITROUS OXIDE ( nos / n2o ) advice forum

I've split the following posts from a another thread to avoid taking it off subject.

Moo started it as shown below;

your preaching to the converted here trev
the tide IS turning and your time is coming
you should know that already, ive never know it to be so busy at HQ when i ring up
crack that whip!

You're right Moo it is VERY BUSY with International orders from all over the world, so word is spreading and getting through at last.

Here's a list of the countries we've sent systems to in just the last couple of weeks and to America in particular we've sent a few out;

America
Holland
Croatia
Bosnia
Germany
Denmark
France
Australia

So it looks like you could also be right that MY time has come or at least is just round the corner, just as I'm about to sell the company. BLOODY TYPICAL - but at least I'll go out on a HIGH!!!!

I can't believe I've read that. I knew you wanted to retire but didn't realise you'd put the company up for sale, I was sort of hoping it would stay in the family or something.

In reference to an earlier post re sulphur - maybe we should spread the word that WON kits stink the most in the hope of keeping the little-known secrets for ourselves

If it's not commercially-sensitive, may I ask how this may proceed? Will it be up for tender/offers for anyone? What about Ant/Chip etc, they could do worse than to get a business loan and secure their future.

And what about forum members with money to invest (or anyone for that matter), is there any openings there?

I'm keeping my options COMPLETELY open and will consider all possibilities and any proposals.

For the record I've already had (more than 18 months ago) offers from 2 US companies but I decided against accepting either of them for various reasons.

I've also had further interest from other parties over the past few years and I'm just in the process of starting discussions with another but as yet nothing firm has been concluded.

With regards to Ant and Dave (not Chip as he is not an employee, more a helpful customer), I wont do anything to jeopordise their positions but as they are KEY to the future success of the business, there's been no conflict of interest on that, as all those who have shown interest have stipulated it as a prerequisite that both Ant and Dave would need to be part of any deal.

It has been discussed that Ant and/or Dave would take over the company and although both would have been eager to do so once upon a time, they now realise that RUNNING a company is a LOT HARDER than being an employee, so they'd rather stay as they are.

One thing I will say, is that EVERYONE who has had the opportunity to appraise the purchase of my company in some depth, has been EXTREMELY IMPRESSED by most aspects of it and ALL have said its a golden opportunity for whoever buys it.

Maybe you should organise a CUSTOMER buy out instead of a workers buy out.

Apologies to Chip and Dave and anyone else I've left out that's involved with the running of the company! I understand Ant and Dave's position as they just want an easy(ish) life without the responsibility, stress and worry of possibly making bad business decisions etc.

Yes, I think it's worth exploring all possibilities of which an enthusiasts group is one as there's already been quite a few successful UK company takeovers by the workers/customers instead of them going to the wall/sold off to foreign parties. I believe one Wolworths store has undergone such a transformation.

So without further ado, have you got an info pack detailing the company and it's assets etc? Obviously the small print contracts will have to be scrutinised but a general summary would be a good start/advert I think?

RIP WIZARDS OF NOS

Erm!!!

Do you need a recommendation on a fair asking price? If so, I can shoot you a rough formula so that you can have realistic expectations. Or do you have other questions as well?

And I will say this as well- since the present value of a company depends on future earnings, and no doubt that the amount of future earnings would depend on your own personal involvement (you must admit is why many people purchase your systems), I would not even consider purchasing your company without some sort of future commitment from yourself. It may be on a consulting basis only (i.e. they pay you $X / hour, as much or little as they'd like), or a commitment of a certain number of hours per month, etc. There are certain situations which a businessman, no matter how smart, will simply not be able to solve certain issues and require your involvement. Of course that will require different amounts of time depending on the technical expertise of the buyer, but since (I believe) there is NOBODY with your level of technical expertise your involvement will be required to a degree. Any businessman who buys the business without at least SOME commitment from you would be downright insane. (And besides, you'd still enjoy being involved in some extent - we know you aren't going to retire to a life of lawnmowing and watching soaps).

-BC

No, no, no, if anything it should improve, as I've not really done a great deal to advance "the company", as my main aim has been to advance the products themselves.

In the right hands and if sales get cranked up (as should easily be possible), the result should be products of the same quality at a lower price and available through more outlets, leading to world domination.

Hi Trev

Very interesting thread to say the least....

I must admit some bias here as when you first mentioned it to me , I SERIOUSLY considered buying it.

My problem being that my other 2 Companies take too much of my time to give yours the attention it deserves

Some other points have already been covered....

How would ANYONE buy the WON company and replace the foremost Nitrous expert in the world....

Secondly, that person would HAVE to love Nitrous, as you do....

Failing finding someone like that, I suspect you would probably get a higher price from a rival Nitrous company, although I hated saying or even thinking that.

If you did sell to them , then they would probably have little interest in your loyalty to your excellent staff

I think you need a twin to sell it to lol

OR.....

Is there no way Lisa could take over ???

In these days of webcams, internet conferencing etc.....she could "run" the company from Malta and keep Doncaster running in its present form ?


Just a few off my head thoughts....

I will add more , if any occur...at my ancient age lol

All the best Brett

Thanks for all that Brett and I'm sure you're right about the rivals situation Brett but one thing that my business seems to be attracting is people with a desire to carry on the kind of work the way I've done it, so I hope the only changes will be for the better, no matter who ends up buying it.

Trev, I sent you a PM but I'm not quite sure if it went. Please confirm.

(Sorry to others who might be interested, but there are reasons this type of advice shouldn't be made public)

-Bob C.

Just read this now why i would be sad to see Trev go must say kind of made me happy that i read this , i would be over moon if a buyer with same dedication and vision could be found for WON . if it was me think i would have shut up shop and move to malta a long time ago , a fanstasic time i had with WON and taught me a new passion ,and more than that i liked the old bugger

is a great product a great system i would like to see it around for many years, but emotional side of me say i would like to see trev around more

I still think with palning and internet support and spares back up won will live , but a lot depends on if we have listened as a whole to step up to the progression of nitrous , if im honest Ant and dave are very skilled and way up there and i respect them both but like most of our generation LOL oki and theres do not have the drive and passion for what won stands for

part of me says i still need so much Trev but most of me says make 2009 ya last year high or low good or bad it has to be final at some point Trev and i already think ya way over due

Tezz

2X to tezz

selfishness says stay, friendlyness says go and put your feet up in the sun

i swear to jesus i will move to england live in my bike trailer and work for free before i let you sell this company trev! you know whats gonna happen if you sell it, they are gonna look for the cheapest way to build the product, that puts the most money in thier pockets. and that means building cheap ass american style products. and stuff that just doesnt last and doesnt work. and lifetime warranty? puhlezzze say good bye to that. REVO? yeah right, to expensive for people to buy, not a big enough profit margin....r&D...yeah right.


you know its true.

hire people to run it...but dont sell..

trev,
it must be approaching 20 years since what to me sounded like a slightly crazy guy turned up at kenny's for a blast on his then new superflow dyno with maybe an old rover lump a bottle of laughing gas and some strange ideas about squirting in stages of this stuff and more petrol expecting to get much more power and torque without increasing rpm's or adding a blower,
it sounded a bit optimistic back then, you had been at it for years but it was new to me,
i mean come on, when was the last time you saw anybody moving much faster on their way out of the dentists than when they walked in after they had a sniff of what you had in that bottle,

more recently i have tried a basic WON system and holy cow gasman it works like you said it would,
WON has moved forward a whole lot since then introducing new ideas and more up to date technology finally overcomming the elsewhere unsolved problem of smooth flow control while others stick with high mass slowass solenoids more suited to a landi renzo lpg conversion, distribution blocks some of which would not look out of place on a pnumatic clamp saw bench and a host of other far from ideal system components,
good on ya ,

just think, between jeremy kyle and corra you will have plenty of time to ponder on that direct cylinder injection lmao

Thanks for the support and concern guys both for me and my products.

Be assured that I'll be doing everything to ensure my business continues much as it is now after I sell the company.

The current interested party is one of our main component suppliers, so its in their interests to keep the component design and quality as it is.

Bob it would be nearer 30 years when I was first playing with that Rover and thanks for recognising all those achievements.

My direct injection system could well be part of my retirement plans but TV certainly wont.

I'm glad to read this! How will it be achieved? From watching dragon's den, it appears it's all down to percentages of shareholdings.

Since curbing my OBSESSION with R&D to a great extent approx. 6 months ago and primarily concentrating my teams efforts on sales, we have SUBSTANTIALLY improved the profitability of my company and yet we've really only scratched the surface of what could be achieved if a fully coordinated effort was made. This remember has been achieved in the depths of the worst economic conditions the world has seen for decades, so I'm sure you can imagine how much better it would be had that not been the case, although having said that, the fall in the value of the ££ has certainly helped our export sales and my hope is that even if the £ starts to rise again (as it seems to be), we will have made a big enough impression in enough countries to make people realise its worth paying more for our products.

We are so far in front of the rest of the pack (like in another galaxy) that I could cut R&D out entirely for the next 5 years or more and still have no fear of them catching up, so overheads could also be cut more and that time and effort put in to improving sales even further.

Combine the reduced R&D costs with a fully structured marketing effort and the company could grow and become more profitable by a substantial amount within a matter of months, so I'm quite sure that any GOOD businessman will see the logic of staying with what is already proven (with regards to product design and quality) and concentrate his efforts on increasing the profit by doing the best possible job in the area I have neglected, marketing & sales effort.

I may never win businessman of the year but I can't be too bad at it, as I've been self employed now for approx. 35 years and negotiated my way through a number of EXTREME situation, of the kind that have put MILLIONS of companies out of business (lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, suffered 2 oil crisis which caused massive increases in petrol prices, etc., Maggie's assault on the miners which lead to recession & crippled my first year in nitrous, almost died of an unknown stomach condition, 2 divorces and now this economic crisis - HOW THE HELL DID I GET THROUGH THAT LOT!!!!!!), so I think my judgement on this is as good as any.

The FUNNIEST about ALL this is the number of ARSEHOLES who over the years have had the audacity (or should that be STUPIDITY), to claim they could do it all better than I was doing, despite them being TOTALLY NEW to not only nitrous but being in business as well, only for them ALL TO FAIL WITHIN 18 months at most.


So here I am 30+ years later, STILL the ONLY nitrous company in the UK, STILL the ONLY nitrous company outside of the USA, STILL the ONLY nitrous company in the world that is solely responsible for the invention, design and production of the vast majority of the products it sells and all those "EXPERTS" we've had come on my forums over the years to bad mouth me are nowhere to be found.