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“Wizard” restores ancient Vespa
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Vespas from
Italy, which are 5-6 decades old, some only the
bare frame, are collected from every where in
Vietnam, by the restored skill of a “Sorcerer” – an
English man, when they are restored back to
original… they are then exported worldwide to
England, USA, German, France,Australia, Japan…even
in their home country – Italy. “Sorcerer” named
Patrick Joynt, Director of Saigon Scooter Center (SSC). |
Setting up
business is unexpected
In the SSC Showroom
and Office located in Cuu Long Street, Tan Binh
District, Ho Chi Minh City, Pat is in a reserved manner
“What do Vietnamese Journalists want?”. However, after
we have showed all our purposes and spoke about
Manchester Football team – where Pat was born and grew
up – the conversation is opened.
“When I was 13
years old, I had a Vespa to roam in the country side,
because I was too young to ride on the roads in the
city. At first, I bought one Vespa for $15.00usd because
it was cheap, easy to ride and looked good, but then I
was taken in by it’s style and charm” – Pat said. To
satisfy indulgence, he bough books and magazines about
Scooters to find out about the different models,
specifications and technical data… day by day, he learnt
to rebuild the entire Scooter. That was the basis for
his job in the future.
In 1997, on an
Asian tour, Pat went to Cambodia and planned to stay
there a week. But when he come to this country, he met a
guy, who liked to be “wild” also, and that man invited
Pat come to Vietnam – which was not planned. “We stayed
in the city centre, Vietnam is a strange country, but
when I went around the streets, I saw some classic
Vespas, and my indulgence was awakened…I asked around
and bought 2 Vespas to take back to England while
continuing to learn about exporting from Vietnam. At the
time there were not any foreigners restoring and
exported Scooters, so I decided to come back Vietnam to
establish a shop to restore classic Scooters located in
Pham Ngu Lao” – Pat recalled the first days making
business in Vietnam.
It is called a
shop, in fact these days, it’s a 100% foreign owned
company, Pat become Director… and purchaser and
restorer! At first, Pat – a foreigner – had to roam in
alleys and side streets in Saigon, Dong Nai, Binh Duong
to buy ancient scooters, then restored, designed by
himself and bought parts and accessories from UK,
German, Italy, India… to restore, and then find out
Customers from other countries to export to. As the
business grew, Pat has to hire more local staffs to
purchase and chose some skillful machinists to restore
to Pat’s specifications… Nowadays, Pat owns a workshop
specialising in restoring Scooters in Tan Binh District.
They are currently exporting Scooters to 15 nations in
the world, including UK, France, Australia, and German…
even in Italy – The home of the original Scooters.
Experiences…
To success as
nowadays, Pat smiles: “There were painful experiences…”
After I bought the two first Vespa’s and brought them
back to England, I then come back to establish the new
company, the “young director” was eager to find out a
constant source of Scooters. After hearing that a
motor-shop owner was selling a classic GS Vespa, Pat
came to see the seller and decided to buy. Pat had paid
all expenses but the owner told him that please come
back tomorrow to get the Vespa. Early morning, Pat was
eager and got a “xe om” (motorcycle taxi) to ride the
Vespa back, but the shop was closed. Pat waited the
entire the morning, but Pat could not see the owner and
then another 6 buyers arrived to get the Vespa. At that
time, they were all surprised: the owner had sold the
same one Vespa to 7 people… and then had fled… Even
though Pat lost the money, he was more shocked and
surprised… It’s a primary lesson in business experiences
learnt in a foreign country…But it is not the real
shock! …
The real shock came
later…the entire Scooters stock disappearing. Pat had
known one person who acted as a friend. One time, when
Pat had to gone back to the UK for business, Pat asked a
friend to look after the shop, and there were seven
Scooters waiting for restoration. While Pat was busy in
UK, his friend sold all the stock and then disappeared.
The shock made Pat disappointed and nearly closed the
business. “ I reconsidered, there are bad people every
where and I decided to continue my business. Now, nobody
can dupe me because I have many painful experiences” Pat
was humorous.
By he has had more
painful experiences, which Pat is always ready to share
especially towards the persons, who have the same
situation. The following story we did not hear from Pat,
we heard from Anh – a staff worked for Pat more than
three years ago “Two years ago, a Korean man come to the
Company and offered a series of Vespa’s ,Mobilette and
Solex. Pat decided to buy. Pat paid and transferred them
to stock. After several days, another Korean man came to
Company to implore him to sell back to him. Actually, he
came to Vietnam to buy them and attempt to bring back to
Korea, but he lacked some money and paperwork, then he
had returned back Korea to raise some more funds. He
asked a compatriot friend to keep the scooters for him.
However, this man sold them all. Pat sent staff to check
and then sent back to the Korean man for the price that
Pat had bought them for and transfer fee.
Want to stay a
long time in Vietnam
When Pat decided to
open his business in Vietnam, Pat learnt that there were
many foreign companies involved in the same business.
Also, SSC encountered many Vietnamese restoration shops
also competing for sales. Pat told us that to restore a
classic Vespa, SSC needs 10 – 12 weeks while many
Vietnamese shops need only 4 – 5 days. “The most
important factor is quality. We restore not only to
original specifications, but we also custom build the
models to Customers’ requirements. To ensure the quality
can pass through strict tests of USA, UK, France etc we
test each scooter individually to overseas inspection
reports. Pat was proud. Pointing to a gold Scooter in
the workshop, Pat showed that is was one of his
favourite Scooters, he restored to the requirements of a
foreign friend, who is teaching foreign languages in
HCMC. This Scooter is a vintage Lambretta and then was
rebuilt with all import and custom parts and with an
engine capacity of 225 cm3… Nevertheless, the
most impressive part are the details such as custom gas
shockers, stylized stainless steel exhaust pipe, many
parts engraved by hand… Pat has spent 12 weeks and
worked together with his mechanics to restore, with many
details he did by himself. The Lambretta starts with a
unique sound, the Englishman was humorous: “This is
unique in the world; we cannot calculate how much money
it took to restore something as unique as this”.
Over 10 years, SSC
has exported 3/4 Scooters each month on average.
Indulgence of young persons in
Vietnam in recent
years is making the supply of Scooters very scarce.
Before, Pat could buy 2-3 scooters a day, but now it is
much more difficult and more expensive. That is the
reason that many people come from foreign countries and
try to follow the “SSC Boat” to making business.
“Besides importing parts and accessories, we also
produce hundreds of Italian quality accessories to
supply to Customers overseas” – Pat explained. And there
is a new way Pat did not say, but other projects were
shown: restoring other kinds of motorcycle, not only
Scooter. There were Honda Chaly’s, which Pat bought to
restore and then re-designed to be offroad sport
motorcycles for foreigners to rent and tour…
The moment when we
were leaving, he confided: “In the future I’m looking
into opening a scooter cafe / coffee shop, and we also
plan to introduce a collection of Vespas and organize
Saigon city Tours for foreigners who want a special
Vespa experience”.
Minh Duc – Trung
Bao
Saigon Scooter Centre, 38 Road K7,
Ward 12, Tan Binh District. Tel:811 8872 Website:
www.saigonscootercentre.com
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