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Kawasaki teams up with Cabela’s – September 4, 2006

Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA plans to sell ATVs, Mule utility vehicles and associated parts and accessories at select Cabela’s stores.
The two companies recently entered into an agreement making five Cabela’s showrooms “authorized full-service” Kawasaki dealerships, offering Kawasaki vehicles, parts and accessories, and service departments staffed by trained technicians.
The agreement allows Nebraska-based Cabela’s to sell ATVs and Mule vehicles in Sidney, Neb., Owatonna, Minn., Dundee, Mich., and Kansas City, Kan. A location in Hamburg, Pa., will sell Mule exclusively.
Founded in 1961 as a small merchant that offered fishing flies through advertisements in national outdoor magazines, Cabela’s revenue for the second fiscal quarter ended July 1 was $387.3 million or 12.6 percent higher than revenue of $343.9 million for the same period last year.
Cabela’s features approximately 245,000 SKUs and circulates more than 120 million catalogs with more than 76 separate titles. The company has 15 stores throughout the United States. Plans for 13 additional locations are under way. Stores range in size from 35,000 square feet to 247,000 square feet, and include large-format destination retail stores that are 150,000 square feet or larger.
Kawasaki’s Russ Brenan told Powersports Business the Cabela’s retail locations function like any other Kawasaki sales outlet.
“They’re basically just like any other of our dealers,” he said. “They have to adhere by all of the same policies and requirements as any other dealer we have in our system, which means they have to have a parts area, service department, and buy their products at the same price as everyone else. Plus, they can sell them at their retail locations only, and can’t sell them via mail-order or their Internet site.”
“They (the chosen locations) were put in place in markets where we didn’t have any representation and where we were looking for dealers,” Brenan explained. “For instance, there is one dealer who will just sell Mule, and that’s because we already have a Kawasaki ATV dealer in that market area.”
Brenan said adding more Kawasaki outlets at Cabela’s locations “is certainly a possibility. We have some dealer groups that have more stores than Cabela’s. So, if there are locations that they currently have or are looking to open, where we don’t have a dealer and need Kawasaki representation, they would be considered for that.”

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