 We're getting to the recent past of Sherco, so I'm pretty sure that most of you remember the latest conquests of the brand. But do you know that 2019 was also the year that Sherco decided to make a serious investment in one of the biggest markets in the world? Yes, I am talking about the United States. Sherco in France was looking for more focus and growth in the United States being such a market for most companies globally. The United States is usually a growth market for anyone. So if you ask 10 people on the street who are dirt bike enthusiasts or off-road enthusiasts or supercross, motocross, enduro, I'm going to combine them into one and say who is Sherco? I bet you early on it might have been two out of the 10 that can say oh that's a brand from France. They do this and trials back. So it has been our job to really disrupt the market and we're trying to be creative. We don't have the budgets of the big brands, certainly, especially here in the United States where a single importer, we're not Sherco as a whole, we're the importer. And yes, we work hand in hand with France, but we'll get to this. I'm sure that the race team has been a great tool for us and that the proof is in the pudding because these bikes are fantastic out of the creek. Some people say they're ready to race. Our factory line really is ready to race with the bikes are great, but nobody knew of them and nobody could get them. So we were doing demos where we get people riding the bikes. We've grown our dealer network significantly thanks to our sales team. They've gone from maybe 30 active dealers to now we're over 85 approaching 100 since we've just opened California. Nice. That's short of the time. Becoming a reference in the US is a true challenge, but Sherco seems up to it. The first block is in place with the creation of the Factory 1 Sherco team and by signing one of the most valuable riders in the field. Cody Webb joined the team to race in Hard and Rural, while the Baylor Brothers led the show in GNCC and in the Rural. And the factory run at 3R and on the Rural, it's basically like the Sherco Racing Factory team. It's the racing structure of Sherco USA that's independent than the distribution part because a strategy was to implement a super large team for the first year to show that Sherco is competitive on the market because you speak to a typical guy in the GNCC and you say, you know Sherco? Yeah. Say, what is it, ice cream? It certainly is risk reward for us as a young company, as a young brand, especially on the GNCC side with the Baylor's, the 450, really it's unknown it hasn't been raced at a world level outside of now with Rally, but that's kind of a different setup entirely, but so we put eggs in a risky basket and it was proving well, aside from the one fluke that we had in Florida with the two mechanicals, a battery I think it was and a gas thing because we don't have aftermarket parts so our quick fill had failed on us. And so besides that, I mean they were running close to the front and Stewart was about to go, he's right on the leader's, he was about to get the win where it's probably one of the most frustrating second place I think you'll have in the rest of your life. So we accomplished some goals, we've now podiumed in GNCC and now we're looking for the win and then to fight for championships and that's across the board and Cody certainly plans to compete overseas. I think Bursberg being cancelled is a big bummer because we really think he could have had a shot to be the first American to win. We think he'd be set up to do so, you know, he wants to challenge for the Enduro cross Enduro cross sorry and Super Enduro in Europe, he was planning on doing that in the last round for Poland that starts the new season. So but yes and challenge for championships there again, it's brought a bunch of credibility to the brand, not just in the United States, you see a lot of our distributors globally that will reshare a lot of our content, a lot of our social media postings and things and they'll use the photos from our race advertising and things. So we're certainly impacting Sherco on a global level as well and you know, it's a big investment in terms of what our ownership has to put in to do this but I do really believe they see that it gives us that credibility and it's also improving the marketplace as a whole in that you've seen so many aftermarket companies now producing Sherco products that you didn't see before. So there's that impact as well and benefits. So that was always a question from consumers, well, okay, now I see it's a proven bike, I love it, I've ridden it but can I get that part that I needed and so we have the ability to fulfill that we have the warehouse in Kentucky that if the dealership doesn't stock it or they should be stocking it but if they're out of it, they can call us through the Sherco network, get that part delivered so that person can go racing that weekend so a lot has changed that way but you know the emphasis on the team from both the Enduro and the trials has been around but Enduro especially it's just such a big marketing tool for us and you know we understand that and taking Cody from factory KTM is such a crew for us. The Baylor is coming from KTM again that just it kind of sent sort of this shot across the bow as we say here in the United States of like this and people kind of joked about us early on and you know the results have really kind of scared things scared people and we're not we're they're not holding our hands anymore and helping us to point lines and you know the mud pit over here I hope he gets in it so but again I think the competition is great. The input of one Cody Web and the two Baylor brother for sure it helps us a lot because it can show the result that is capable to do the bike so that's it. But enough talking about the past. What's reserved for the brand's future? What are the obstacles Sherco will face? Only future will tell but we already know a few things. The Euro 5 regulation will definitely be a true test of fire. To meet the criteria, two stroke manufacturers will need to introduce the injection technology or find similar solutions in order to be able to sell road legal bikes. But Sherco is already working on that. It's not a big secret, but it's necessary to go to fuel injected. The limits of that is Euro 5 in 2024. So it's in four years so we have time. The problem is not if we have we not have I think all the player on the market they have this maybe on the market or maybe in R&D. Is when they will introduce it for marketing argument to be the first one or the last one or whatever or because the product is better. If you are not the first one to introduce you must be the best. Yeah, if you don't have that card to play it's okay. So let's just focus on doing something really good. Yeah, we have not a big ego. We are the first in four stroke who put the injected. If you have not if you have not the best product you not go on the market. So we at that time that the others introduce injected bike we're not okay with the technology we had. So we say no it's not the time to go on the market. The time will come and the truth is that Sherco still has a lot of room to grow in the off-road segment and not only that one. If you analyze it's quite without big secrets. We are in 3L we are in Enduro. What are the markets that can be interesting? MX maybe. MX is for young rider. It's not the same customer that we have in Enduro that says 45 to 55. That is a wealthy people CSP plus. But maybe we are already selling. We are selling more quantity of moped supermoto than 3L in terms of quantity. This market of soft road bike. We want to do nice products so we would like to go to mass production product or scooter or things like that. So off-road we need to work in this off-road. After we never know maybe we need to go to road one day when I cannot tell you right now. So maybe some little kids off-road bikes might be on your thoughts. We need to finish all engine capacity and the difference is when you do a kids bike it's purely in terms of investment you need to make the engine and the cycle parts. And this is a this is a big cost but there is a big market and there is only a key team is on this market the others are not present. So it's something to check. So Thomas thank you so much for your time it was a lovely chat and I think everyone will be really interested in hearing what you have to say. 2020 brings new challenges and the story of Shurko does not end here. From now on we'll catch up on the next episodes live and in real time to see what this new decade will bring. Stay tuned on behind the scenes to discover the untold story of your favorite off-road brands. See you next time.