The problem many retailers will have is that Precor and Icon have got serious in this range. Additionally, you are facing the strength of other's lineups in this price point.
General Information
Accell Fitness is the distributor for the USA. Since Tunturi had some negative connotations since it went mass market with the old Service Merchandise chain and others years ago, Accell has had some luck getting the Bremshey line in specialty retailers. Unfortunately for Accell, they came to the market right as the economy was starting to turn down and fewer and fewer dealers were able to hold on. This has created a situation where they have been beaten by the market and competitors like a rented mule so we'll see what the future holds for them. For the quickly receding dealer base, we are dropping coverage on this brand this year.
Quality / Philosophy
Seems to be: put together a decent machine at a relatively value price. The treads are very solid units but the ellipticals need some work. Overall, they are building a unit with care put into the quality of components they are using.
Outlook
cell seems to be one of the stronger newcomers in this market and if this were a normal downturn we wouldn't have any question if they were going to be around, but this is not a normal downturn. It will depend upon how much money Accell wants to spend in order to ride this downturn out as to whether we will see the Bremshey brand 5 years from today. The Tunturi brand hasn't had as much luck in the US market over the years and new distributors for Tunturi have been more common than we would prefer to see, especially considering product support. We don't expect to see this brand around in 5 years.
