Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-28
REQ CLOSES MOST
SUCCESSFUL YEAR
Fifty Per Cent. Increase Over Last
Year, With Night and Day
Shifts to Meet Demand

1--WE have just completed the most
successful year in our history" said
Richard II. Scott, Vice President and
General Manager of the REQ Motor
Car Company when on August 20th
the factory superintendent informed
him that the last car of the 1915
series had been shipped.
"Our volume of business for the
past year has been so per cent more
than the year previous and our growth
has been steady from the day REQ was
incorporated-in 1905.
I'VE have always underestimate
or if we did not Underestimate, we
under produced-the REQ demand.
This year we fall short of the mark
it is source of much qualification, it
is also regrettable that for several
weeks there will not be a new REQ
car for sale anywhere in the world.
During the past three months we
have been unable to come anywhere
near supplying the demand of deal
ers, and we were driven almost to
our wits ends to allot the last few
hundred cars in an equitable man
ner and prevent our dealers feeling
that there was any favoritism.
Our original plans were such that
the factory run on material for the
1915 models would be completed
about the last of September when the
new models were to be announced
and ready. In our efforts to meet
the insistent demands of the last few
mouths, however. we put on an extra
night shift and that, of course, used
Iq
spite the fact that we made several
thousand more Reos than we origi-
nally planned, still the material was
used up before that for the new mod
els was ready. AS a result there is
now gap between production sea-
sons when it is impossible to buy a
new REQ.
Shipments of the new models will
begin September 18th, and as our an
nouncement will appear on the 18th,
we anticipate an avalanche of orders
for them.
However. when they do come they
will come pretty rapidly.
by the way. we think that this
year Reo's experience demonstrates
conclusively that it is not necessary
in fact that it is wrong. to bring out
new models right in the middle of
the busiest season-June and July.
That is the time when the greatest
number of people want automobiles,
and it certainly is ridiculous to close
the plants to make the necessary
changes in equipment. etc. They all
told us that inasmuch as everybody
else was doing 1t, REQ would also have
to announce new models and prices in
the middle of the season. We said
we would not simply because we could
not.
I'VE were curious to know II new
models, etc, would effect the REQ de-
mand. and we were not a little sur
prised to find that it affected it not
at all. If anything, the REQ demand
Increased.
The fall is the logic time to make
any changes that may be desirable or
necessary. and at that period would
Inconvenience the least number of
buyers. For that reason, the REQ
plan will be adhered to- and we are
it also-save in those cases where be-
cause of having obsolete models or
non competitive ones, they may be
forced to do otherwise.
Perhaps the most significant as
well as the most encouraging feature
of the REQ business during the past
year | sthe indication that this in
dustry has ceased to he one of sea-
sons, The difference in demand for
cars in September and May was not
noticeable. OF course, it is difficult
to guage the demand when you have
chronic over-demand such as REQ
experiences.
Notwithstanding, there was
marked difference between this and
former years in that the demand con-
tinued right through the season. il
seems just as brisk now. 1t is due
of course to the fact that people have
found the automobile indispensable in
the winter as we'll as in the summer,
and l expect to see the demand even
greater than the Spring demand in
the future. for the reason that buyers
have come to know that the actual
new models are brought out in the
fall season and that only by buying
then can they be sure of having a
car for the Spring use. To wait until
the Spring actually opens means that
it will be impossible to get any of the
more popular makes of cars.