Features

Nov. 12, 2007 – Aftermarket Digest

Two Industry Companies Partner On Retail Initiative
Retail Design Associates will provide retail merchandise training for national distributor Helmet House under an exclusive agreement the companies recently announced.
The retail consulting company also will help Helmet House improve its merchandising materials, including retail displays and signage.
The agreement between the two long-time industry companies will include dealership training to Helmet House’s top accounts.
“Their expertise in the merchandising and retailing area will be a real asset to our product lines and Retail Design Associates’ strategic training regimen will make an already dynamic merchandising function in our sales force even stronger,” Bob Miller, Helmet House’s president and co-founder, said in a press release.
Richard Kimes, Helmet House’s national marketing manager, told Powersports Business the agreement could help the distributor’s dealerships in one of two ways. Helmet House sales reps will be trained by Retail Design Associates in retail presentations, which will then be brought to their accounts. Also, Retail Design Associates will conduct on-site training at select dealerships that carry Helmet House lines.
“We want to create as much impact for our brands in these key stores as possible,” Kimes said. “Some of them are getting very sophisticated in the level of merchandising they need, and we felt in our best interest and our brand’s best interest to bring a player like RDA into this.
“The goal is to learn what we don’t know. We do a pretty good job of merchandising from what a lot of our dealerships tell us. But we could always do better, and these guys are really at the forefront of the industry.”
Retail Design Associates has worked with Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha dealers over the past decade, according to the press release.
Helmet House is the exclusive U.S. distributor of Shoei helmets and the leading U.S. distributor of HJC helmets and Pinlock anti-fog face shield technologies. The company also is the exclusive U.S. distributor of TCX boots from Italy and the manufacturer and marketer of high growth brands like Tour Master and Cortech riding apparel and gear.
ADP Launches Payroll System To Help Small Businesses
ADP Small Business Services released a new online payroll solution, RUN, according to an ADP press release.
RUN allows accountants to see their entire small business client base. It offers a number of payroll services, including basic payroll calculations, direct deposit and tax filing.
The RUN program also comes with the option of creating a branded home page for firms, which can be available to their small business clients.
ADP offers full-service set up, or accountants have the option of doing it themselves.
LeoVince USA Moves Into New U.S. Headquarters
To accommodate a sales increase of nearly 100 percent over 2006, LeoVince USA moved into a new building in the San Francisco Bay area. The new building has additional office space, an R&D center with dyno room, photo studio and increased warehouse space, according to a LeoVince press release.
U.S. Manager Tim Calhoun said the company needed more room because of LeoVince’s rapid growth. “A lot of our competitors are scaling back, but we flat out needed more space to keep commitments we’ve already made for 2008,” he said.
In addition to the new building, LeoVince USA has increased its personnel by creating a new position, electronics development manager and filling its marketing manager position.
Helmet, Apparel Manufacturer Sold To Accessories Company
Helmet and apparel manufacturer M2R has been sold to Australian motorcycle accessories company McLeod Accessories, a subsidiary of Repco Corp., Repco said in a statement.
The global office for M2R International will be based out of Brisbane, Australia, with additional offices and brand management operating in California for the North and South American markets, and in Zurich and Barcelona for the European markets.
“We see huge potential in the brand and will be investing heavily to further invigorate the product line-up and expand our distribution footprint and operations globally,” Repco representatives said in the release. “The huge value in the ‘Made to Ride’ and ‘Made to Race’ icons and concepts, what M2R actually stands for, will be the foundation upon which we grow the brand with innovative quality products.”
M2R’s 2008 range will be launched to the market shortly.
CV Products Inc., Xceldyne Technologies Name President
Jim Zoretich was recently named president for CV Products and Xceldyne Technologies, which offer a diverse line of racing components.
Clyde Vickers will remain CEO of both CV Products and Xceldyne Technologies, which are located in Thomasville, N.C.
“We are excited with Jim joining our team with his proven track record and wealth of industry knowledge,” Vickers said in a press release.
Zoretich has more than 20 years in the performance racing industry, serving the past two years as vice president and general manager of the powersports division of PMI.
Prior to that, Zoretich was president and general manager for Chambon Crankshafts, also a PMI company.
“CV Products has a long tradition of excellence in serving the motorsports market and Xceldyne has been able to achieve substantial growth by building a reputation for supplying high-quality products over the last several years,” Zoretich said.
Celebrating its 20th year, CV Products delivers professional race engine components and offers a diverse line of racing components for all key engine and engine-related product categories: block and internal components, oilsystems, fuel systems, cooling systems, external drive systems, chassis components and accessories and much more.
Xceldyne Technologies is a direct manufacturer of both titanium valves and valvetrain components.
Edgeworth Joins Torian Chopper Leathers
Torian Chopper Leathers has hired Mozelle Edgeworth to represent the company’s chopper leather jackets, chaps, shirts and gloves to motorcycle dealerships throughout the central and eastern United States.
Before joining Torian, she spent eight years at American IronHorse as a dealer relations manager and also opened her own apparel company, Custom Impressions.
“We are excited to have a talent like Mozelle getting behind the firm and assisting us in establishing new relationships with dealers,” said Bob Kay, Torian’s chief designer. psb

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