C&R Imports are a major player within the Australian Motocross industry, distributing a range of top brands throughout the Aussie market each year.

The Victorian based company, founded in 1985, distrubutes product nation-wide and sponsors a broad selection of riders and high level teams – coordinating the marketing and promotion side of the operation is Joel Ryan.

MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Ryan this week to chat about the company, the brands it distributes, his daily role within C&R Imports and more.

Firstly, what is C&R Imports as a company and which major products does it distribute into the Australian Motocross market?

We are the Australian distributor for SCOTT, One Industries, TAG and Braking. So we distribute those products nation-wide and we are responsible for all of the marketing, promotion and sales for the brands in Australia.

What is your primary day-to-day role within C&R Imports’ operations?

I look after all the marketing and promotion which obviously includes advertising, magazine/web advertising, and also a huge part of it is our rider sponsorship.

We sponsor a lot of athletes from across a lot of sports, a huge range of guys from local shop level riders, all the way to the factory level riders with the range of our products.

Teams, brands and riders have definitely stepped up their level in recent years, not to mention the social media takeover we have seen. For you, what do you feel has been the biggest change within your role?

Social media has been a huge thing for sure, it’s definitely made all of the race results a lot more instant and a lot more visible. So riders have to be a lot more proactive themselves in making themselves available for those constant updates.

Not just at the track on race day, but basically everything they do ends up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever it may be. And it’s up to them to maintain a bit of a profile there, then it’s my job to make sure that gets out there and represents us as a brand as well.

We’re sort of advertising a lifestyle a lot of the time and that’s what why we align ourselves with the top athletes in our sport.

How important do you feel it is for you to be amongst the racing action on the weekends and keeping up to date with the latest industry happenings?

That’s so important, it’s a huge part of our business and something we’ve always done. Racing is a massive part of the industry for us and obviously as far as testing product goes, there’s no better place to test products on the race track in the environment where our customers are going to be using our products.

Also of course keeping our finger on the pulse in the racing scene, seeing who’s quick, which young kids are coming up through the ranks – it’s always great to get the next fast kid when they’re fresh on scene.

What do you find to be the most popular best selling products each year, is it the products your professional riders are showcasing, or more entry-level budget items?

Obviously you always sell a lot more of your entry-level products, and the specific products that the professionals use is always the high-end of the product range. But it all comes down to marketing.

Guys see the pros using the top of the range products and they don’t necessarily buy the exact same product if they don’t want to spend the money, but they might associate with the brand and want to become a part of the team.

We have plenty of great products that are a lot more budget priced that still offer great functions and features, so that’s a lot of our marketing coming into play there as well, for sure.

Finally, you distribute international brands such as One Industries, SCOTT and Tag, so how closely does C&R Imports work alongside these brands each year?

Definitely, we work very closely with all our major suppliers. They’ve got a huge interest in our industry and also of course our racing scene. They’re all up to date on who’s winning every week. Another great thing about social media is that it’s so accessible for people overseas.

They’re always watching the race results on Facebook when they happen from the track, they know when Cody Cooper or Matt Moss wins wearing One Industries gear and SCOTT goggles. They see that straight away and next thing it’s on the US Facebook pages and websites.

As well as building our personal brand in Australia, it’s always great to help build our athletes and also the sport in Australia. In itself it promotes the MX Nationals for example to a much bigger audience.

As far as product development, of course we have a lot to do with product testing – we always test new products with our pro riders here. And we also have a lot of input with design and also colour ways and things like that.