CMS: from a moped to world leader
From this issue we welcome a new advertiser – Consolidated Motor Spares (CMS) based in The Netherlands. Company CEO Mike Buttinger cut his first deal at the age of eleven when he rebuilt a Tomos moped and flogged it for enough to buy a Honda C310. From there on Mike traded in Honda spares, frequently buying up inventories of NOS parts, before establishing CMS in 1996. “I never meant to start a worldwide operating company,” Mike says. “From an early age onwards, I loved working with motorcycle parts. When I discovered I could make some money by trading them, this was a pleasant surprise, but I never imagined that things would turn out they way they did.” Today, CMS has a product range of 3.4 million, dispatching 60,000 shipments per year to a worldwide customer base of 125,000. 90% of customer orders are shipped within five days. CMS is now the world’s largest independent distributor of Japanese motorcycle parts, delivering to 65 countries. As well as supplying genuine NOS parts for all the Japanese brands, CMS has hundreds of different products remanufactured, including exhaust systems, brake calipers, filters, shock absorbers, wiring harnesses and many others. “One of the first things I ask manufacturers is to provide me with a selection of references, so I can check whether they will be able to deliver the high quality products we are looking for.” says Mike. As well as the enormous stock of parts, CMS has amassed a mouth-watering collection of fully restored bikes, including some real rarities, such as ex-works Hondas and Yamahas – some models that the factories do not have in their own museums. We will be featuring several of these rare beauties in forthcoming issues.