Last month we brought you the incredible story of Jordan Swerdloff, owner of ADV1 Wheels. The story was received incredibly well by most but still left some skeptical which is acceptable as we only gave you facts, not our opinion. ADV.1 however has been making some big moves in the wheel industry and we wanted to give some of our entrepreneurs some insight about how Jordan thinks about his business and the future of his company. As ADV.1 is a fairly new company, we decided to follow their progress and learn from their business strategy to grow into the vision that Jordan shared with us last month.
Starting with Germany, Jordan tells us all about his international affairs…
What were you guys doing in Germany?
We actually weren’t in Germany, Markus from ATT-Tec came down to visit us and sign the exclusivity agreement / finalize details of ADV.1 Germany. We’ve been doing business with Markus for a few months, and he’s made a lot of plans for ADV.1 Germany, so we’ve decided to move forward with him and allow ATT-Tec to become the Exclusive source for ADV.1 in Germany. With a close business relationship like this it’s important that both parties are comfortable with each other and meet in person, so this was the main reason for his visit with us. While he was here we had a great time, I took him with my wife and son on a nice tour of Miami, he spent some time at our office for a few days learning our production system and we had a couple nights of fun as well. We’re looking forward to visiting ADV.1 Germany very soon for it’s official launch at the Essen MotorShow.
We heard you had the opportunity to work on a very hot SL65 Black Series, tell us more?
The SL65 was actually done by a company in Berlin called TC-Concepts. Ali gave us a call several months back about this setup and gave us the specs. We did 2 sets, 1 for this Black Series that you see, and the other set was for my CLS which you’ve all seen. They were the first 2 sets of Deep concave wheels ever made. The SL65 came out incredible, and the car is a SL65 AMG with a full OEM replica carbon fiber Black Series wide body conversion by TC-Concepts. The kit is available for sale through ADV.1 as well! At the end of the day the car came out insane, and was launched at the Tuning Bolognese show in Germany where it apparently stole the show. Germany has never seen anything like this and as you can imagine it’s light years ahead of anything they’ve been exposed to so it’s caused a huge buzz over there. We have more sets in production right now for Ali and his SL65 BS conversions, as he offers the wheel as a package for this kit with an incredible 20×13” rear with an amazing NEGATIVE 15 offset on the new sets! That’s a 7” lip with a massive deep concave depth of 5” and 2” more inches of lip beyond the center disc. This will be amazing, and we’ll have full photo shoot pics of the setup very soon.
Why was it important for you to win this relationship? What does that mean for your business?
The most important part about this and any international partnership is communication. If there is a major barrier – it simply will not work. Secondly, once past the communication stage the company needs to be reputable, and a good representation of ADV.1 as they are essentially ADV.1 for their customers. This obviously requires a lot of due diligence on our part which we did to ensure that they are a good fit for ADV.1. It’s not only about money and who pays the largest buy in, we’re concerned with the long term relationship and it’s stability. After analyzing every aspect of their business, and having a solid past relationship with no issues we decided they would be the ones for us. What this means for ADV.1 is a new door opening for Germany, a country with as much potential for sales as the US, however due to TUV certification restrictions, very few sales could make their way to them. Now that ATT-Tec has made the large investment to TUV test and certify over 100 fitments, the door is now open and should result in a huge increase in sales volume. As the only wheel brand now available with TUV certification in Germany, there is only 1 choice for exotics now: ADV.1 / ATT-Tec so as you can imagine this is huge for both of us.
Explain how you came about this idea and why Germany?
It’s only natural, every major country needs an ADV.1 exclusive dealer to represent, market and brand the name in their country. Every country has different styles, and ways – so there’s no way for us here in Miami to know how they all operate which is why it’s important to select a capable, established company to handle the distribution, wholesale network and marketing to the area. Germany is a very important country for ADV.1, and we’ve had a lot of interest and dealt with several other dealers over the past year or so. Basically every country needs an Exclusive, and ATT-Tec has proven to us that they are the ones for us.
Looking ahead, what impact will this have on ADV.1 Wheels in the longer term?
This relationship should result in a substantial growth for ADV.1, I expect about a 30% overall increase in sales volume by 2011 from Germany alone and increasing steadily as more time goes on. Also, the partnership will open the door to a lot of new developments as ATT-Tec has a lot of ideas that we’ll put into motion over the next few months. Overall it’s just one of the small steps in the long term growth of ADV.1, and deals like this are under negotiation with many other countries as we speak. Over time we will have a strong, reliable International Dealer Network set up allowing easy access to ADV.1 in every major country in the world.
What is most different between the car culture/customization world there and here?
I think that every country in the world speaks the universal car language, meaning we all share the same taste for what looks good. Some countries are behind, but they all agree once seeing ADV.1 that it’s the leader in design and style. Styles are determined by what the market sees, and I’ve always made it a point not to design or market based on the market, but based on me and what I want to see personally, and I never look at other styles or trends as to not dilute or influence my vision – so regardless of what other countries thought was the hottest, or what’s in style once they see our wheels, photos, marketing and vehicles everything changes. So in Germany, same thing – they love our style and it’s changing the way they customize cars and what’s hot and in style over there. We cater to a high end clientele, the ones who choose simplicity and clean designs so for those who share this taste, ADV.1 is their #1 choice.
How will you use that to your benefit?
Same way I always do : ) Change their entire idea of what looks good, and what’s “hot” by creating my own style / trend. The market changes and gravitates towards what’s the hottest, newest and best looking styles so all I do is show it to them.
Thanks Jordan, we look forward to seeing the results of ADV1’s international expansion.
One of the main things to take away from ADV.1’s affairs is that expansion at an early stage is not always a bad thing. Many business owners are afraid to trust others to carry their brand and therefore walk away from expansion until a very late stage in their business cycle. We’ve learned from the major burger chain “Five Guys” that franchising quickly can work and drive good growth, which allows the business owner to be an owner and no longer a worker. Being afraid of growth is the greatest mistake you can make, but being cautious as Jordan states above and knowing who can really represent your brand is key.
As always make sure to visit ADV1’s website and their awesome line up of wheels and check back next month where Jordan tells us all about a company known for twin turboing Lamborghinis that will work with ADV1 and schools us on how to make big partnerships to grow your business.
