SWOT analysis

Mike_Coggins_Q1: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career path to date? My name is Mike Coggins. I am presently owner and President of Atlantic Auto Exporters Inc. We are a company based in Halifax. We import and export vehicles overseas depending on the currency. Mike_Coggins_Q2: Can you describe a typical workday for yourself? In terms of a typical workday, I get up around 6:00 A.M. and get to work by 7:00 A.M. I answer e-mails for forty five minutes. I usually have a list of the most important things to get done during that day. I will go about doing that. But I do have three or four different companies. So during the day, the phone does not stop. Whatever the most important issues are is what I focus on Mike_Coggins_Q3: Can you describe your role in the organization? In terms of a formal role it is mostly doing bookings, booking the money for the vehicles that we have purchases. It is as well dealing with all the sales invoices, the shipping and export documentation. That is pretty well my main role within the company. Mike_Coggins_Q4: Can you describe your leadership style? In terms of leadership style, I am very laid back with my employees as is my business partner. I try to be a good role model. I tell them exactly what I expect. I do not micro-manage them. I want them to know that they have a responsibility within the company. Mike_Coggins_Q5: What does good performance mean for you in your position? Good performance is when the team is working well. Any kind of business with a good attitude is going to do well. Obviously performance wise, I look at margins daily and make sure that we are always exceeding our margins. Growth of 5% to 10% annually is what I aim for. Mike_Coggins_Q6: How is your company organized? Need Transcript Mike_Coggins_Q6: What does your organization do and how is it different? We usually export vehicles over to dealers, all wholesaler dealers, not retail dealers, in Europe and in Russian but right now it depends on the country and it depends on the currency. We deal mostly with six month old vehicles. We are a little different than most other companies because they either do older vehicles or brand new vehicles. We have contacts with a lot of auctions in the United States and in Canada and a really strong network of dealers who have twenty or thirty wholesalers themselves. It is all about good buying and we really have a good hold on that. Mike_Coggins_Q8: Can you describe any key events that occurred either in your life or that of the organization that were crucial? At the beginning before I was even in the export business, I was in the seafood export but before I was in the car business, I did a lot of travelling and I met a guy over in Australia who imported a lot of Harley Davidsons and that gave me the idea to get into the export business that a key benefit to me was having a key contact overseas to export vehicles to. Mike_Coggins_Q9: How does your organization make money or sustain itself financially? Very simply buy vehicles at good price and of good quality and then sell them to wholesalers overseas who are reputable and buy large volumes and that is pretty much it. Mike_Coggins_Q11: Can you describe the industry within which your company operates and how it is changing? It is competitive. You can count on both hands the major players within Canada who export vehicles. It is a competitive environment but it is very lucrative as well. You really need to know what you are doing in this business and who your customers are. If you want to jump into it with one foot, you can really hurt your business very quickly by dealing with the wrong people. As long as you go out there and make sure you are doing a bit of hedging on the money you are dealing with, dealing with good clientele and always collecting your money before the vehicles go, you are in good shape. Mike_Coggins_Q12: How do firms compete within this industry? It is quite easy. You really have to be competitive in this business. It is about about the buying and you really have to be buying at really good prices and the quality of the vehicles has to be up there. That is our market. We want quality buyers. The quality of vehicles really has to be up there. That is our market. Quality vehicles and buying vehicles at the right price. Other ways of competing are if you can buy your forwards at really good prices. That will really help your profit margins especially as the dollar is fluctuating so intensely. Those companies that can hedge thirty vehicles and double up on the profit margins that is a huge way of remaining competitive Also just making the relationships with the bigger buyers in Europe. Mike_Coggins_Q13: How are companies in the industry dependent upon others for their success and what are some of the actions that they take? There are many companies that I do compete with that rely on single buyers. They do not really have a large avenue to go and buy vehicles through. They will depend on local auctions and a couple of local wholesalers. What you have to do on this business is to have someone at auctions on the East and West Coast. You have to have the largest network of dealers. Not just one, you need to have about thirty people out there looking for vehicles for you at all times. You have to have access to all the major auctions through GM, BMW and the major manufactures. If you did not have those you really would not be in this business. Mike_Coggins_Q14: What is the role of regulators or government in this industry? There is not a really strong presence in terms of the role of government at the moment. There is no price setting or anything like that in Canada. In the U.S. at the moment, there is not a really strong presence either. As we see moving forward with the Canadian dollar getting weaker again, and the exports starting to pick up the only ones that will probably get involved are the CRA. Because we are purchasing vehicles and claiming an ITC. You do not have to charge the HST when you are selling the vehicle. So right now the CRA would probably just be involved if you are acting as an agent. But we are a dealer. Mike_Coggins_Q15: What big issues will companies in your industry be addressing in the next five years? One of the major issues is the currency. If it is a strong dollar, we will not be exporting any vehicles out of Canada. With a weaker dollar, we are always in the game. So it is up and down. It is a like a roller coaster. That is the biggest issue that we have in the next five years. Another issue could be the government, the CRA, putting on a ban. It is in the process now. They are trying to stop individuals from selling vehicles to one or two customers overseas. They want you selling to many customers not just one or two guys acting as an agent. Besides that, the European markets put a maximum on the engine size. Certain vehicles we cannot export because the import tax is so high. So we always have to watch that. Mike_Coggins_Q17: Can you describe the flow of activities in a typical transaction? A normal transaction for us would flow as follows. One of our overseas buyers will have a vehicle that they need for their lot or retail customer. So, for example they will call us up and tell us that they need a 2014 Cadillac Escalade. We will then go and send an e-mail to our twenty or thirty suppliers. We will also check at the GM auctions through passwords that we have through dealers in the U.S. and Canada. Once we find a vehicle. We will buy the vehicle and ship it to the port of destination. Then we will collect the money from the buyer. We will do all of the export documents and we will ship the vehicle. Once the vehicle is shipped it is pretty much out of our hands. The buyer has insurance with the shipping company and the vehicle is paid for already. That is pretty much how our transactions work

Company: Atlantic Auto Exporters Size: Small Industry: Automobile Exporting Business Activity: Wholesale and retail trade Type of Entity: Private Company Number of Employees: 25 to 500 Country: Canada Headquarters: Halifax, Canada Yearly Revenue: $1 million to $25 million Gender: Male Subject: International Business Keywords: