We just got a letter from Jonathan Arn, CEO of Carter Brothers, which tells the story from their perspective. Not much that we didn’t already know. Jonathan said they do plan on coming back (for the fouth time), so without further ado:
Dear Carter/SYM Dealers, July 23, 2010
Upon returning from the 4th of July vacation period on July 12th, Carter Brothers discovered a devastating fire had spread throughout our 265,000 square foot warehouse & manufacturing facility. Unfortunately the fire destroyed the manufacturing facility along with the finished goods & aftermarket parts warehouse along with its contents; nothing in the building was salvageable. There was smoke damage in parts, customer service, technical support and adjacent offices. The main office building for sales and accounting was undamaged; however electrical power and telephone service was lost during the fire. As of today electrical power, telephone & E-mail service has been restored. The main computer server melted from the intense heat however Carter maintains a backup system for the server which saved all records.
The company WILL rebuild. Despite devastating blows such as a tornado in 1989, fire in 2000 & now another fire in 2010 Carter’s commitment to their employees & dealers demands the continuation of the company. The 1st priority will be placing parts orders for SYM and Carter products to give dealers support for the machines they have sold. We intend to expedite aftermarket parts in so your customers can have quick turnaround service on maintenance and repairs. It will take a little time to rebuild the parts department but we have already begun accessing our parts needs; as soon as we have a new computer server installed the parts orders will begin.
Carter has additional buildings which will be set up to manufacture the Eclipse series of Go-Karts, the Revo Buggy series, the Matrix SxS series. We intend to have these machines available for the 2010 Christmas season.
We have a supply of SYM scooters in our West Coast warehouse to cover most models. Please call about the availability. SYM is introducing several new models for the 2011 season which we are excited about. For immediate assistance on SYM aftermarket parts you can contact the SYM Canadian distributor;
SYM Canada Piero Manzini Tel# 1-877-463-3940 E-mail info@symcanada.ca
Sincerely,
Jonathan C. Arn CEO Carter Brothers Mfg. Co., Inc. SYM USA 1871 US Highway 231 Brundidge, AL 36010
We also got word that long-time Carter Bros press man, Pete McIntosh, has parted ways with Carter Brothers but still has love for the scootin’ community. His website is SymplifyLife. Good thing he didn’t name it CarterfyLife!
OH, another good source for SYM parts right now is the venerable Joel Martin at MRP-Speed! If you’re a dealer, give them a call and if not… tell you dealer to give ‘em a call.
23. July 2010 at 9:02 pm
Holy Smoke
24. July 2010 at 11:56 am
Checked with Ken Maurus – west coast sales manager for Carter Bros – good man with a tough job – Ca. warehouse does not have HD 200 or RV 250s or any of the 2010s (RV 300i, RV 200).
24. July 2010 at 2:05 pm
So……… not much on the arson part of the story. I love SYM products, but criminals not so much.
24. July 2010 at 6:01 pm
You know what would have been cool? If they said, “Someone set our stuff on fire and we’re gonna find out who and we’re gonna kick their ass!”
25. July 2010 at 1:12 am
He already knows who did it..
24. July 2010 at 5:20 pm
Well, it’s a bit early to make accusations. There’s still plenty of evidence to gather. ;)
25. July 2010 at 9:21 am
“You know what would have been cool? If they said, “Someone set our stuff on fire and we’re gonna find out who and we’re gonna kick their ass!””
You’re right, at the very least to reinsure the public they are not responsible.
26. July 2010 at 1:00 pm
Nothing says it’s a great time to offer a larger number of unique models like a devastating fire that destroyed one’s ability to support their already broad range of products.
Bold moves, Carter Brothers.
28. July 2010 at 11:38 am
Being that we were the SYM importer back in 2003 we do have a lot of SYM DD 50, SR50, and Jet Euro 50 – 100cc parts that finally started to sell. We’ve solved a few problems with the Go Kart dealers since we have a ton of Buggy parts in stock that work on the SYM engine. Everything from the Exhausts to the gaskets are in stock for the Carter 150cc to the 300cc engine kart range.
90% of the Carter dealers that have called us have been asking about Warranty parts which we are glad to see SYM Canada will resolve. We did spend $1,000 to air ship some pistons for HD200 units that dealers were waiting on and they sold in less than three days. All in all we’ve probably solved about 60 dealer issues since this happened and in many cases people don’t know it was us because 90% of it was drop shipping with the store labels on the package. The only issue we’ve had is some of the Carter repair centers for the buggies no longer have stores some of them have been individuals repairing them at home or lawn mower shops that didn’t want to become a dealer so we passed them on to a larger store.
SYM is a fantastic brand, the company will come back and I’m sure they will do well. KYMCO and SYM together are about 70% of Taiwanese Production of Scooters. Both brands used to be the same company and a part of Honda so I have no doubt with quality like that they will be in the US market.
To the consumers who ride SYM. Again, it is a good product, the line isnt going anywhere and there is plenty of support worldwide for them.
Joel @ MRP
21. December 2010 at 5:42 pm
I’m in need of a wire harness for a Talon XP 150 R2 and
cannot find a dealer who can get one. Do you have this or can you
point me to where I may find it? Thank you very much for any help
in this matter.
5. November 2011 at 5:50 pm
I need 4 CV Boots and 2 CDI for 250 Interceptor can you please point me in a direction of where I can order these parts of my 2007 Carter Brothers Karts.
Also if you know of a dealer in the Salt Lake City UT area…………
Charlie Thorn
801-404-9009
17. November 2012 at 11:55 am
I NEED A STATOR FOR A 150CC CARTER MATRIX. PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP ME FIND ONE. THANK YOU