Dec. 22, 2008 – Pro Armor broadening its lineup

Pro Armor, an ATV and UTV parts manufacturer, is broadening its product portfolio with a second, lower-cost product line in the new year.
The Riverside, Calif.-based company will be launching at Dealer Expo the ProAm Series, a line of products that will sell for 25-30 percent less than the company’s current parts and accessory lineup.
The ProAm Series will include a sport series nerf bar, front bumper, full chassis armor, swing-arm armor, A-arm armor and rear grab bar.
“It’s basically an economical alternative to Pro Armor parts,” said Fred Brayton, Pro Armor’s sales and marketing manager. “It will still be run through our shop, same way Pro Armor parts are run through with some minor tweaks. Obviously material thickness will change. The material’s quality and the way it is handled and treated is all the same.”
Brayton says the material thickness will be similar to the company’s competitors but reduced compared to the Pro Armor product.
The ProAm products’ styling also will differ from the company’s current lineup.
“The styling costs money because there are extra operations, either at the laser machine or at parts press,” Brayton said, adding, “plus there is more material with styling. So there will be a little less material plus the material thickness is where we are able to reduce the costs.”
By taking these steps to create a lower-cost lineup, Pro Armor believes it will be reaching a much larger part of the overall parts and accessory market.
“We believe there are two markets out there, just like in the helmet industry,” Brayton said. “There’s the high-end guys and then there are the HJCs and everyone else, and the market is way bigger for that low-end stuff. People are more price-conscious, not just because of the economy. When this economy is jamming, people are still price-conscious. There’s still a bigger portion of people that are price-conscious.”
The ProAm Series will be featured in brush aluminum black, be anywhere from 5-15 percent cheaper than competitors and be ready for shipping in February, Brayton says.
Pro Armor was still working on the new series’ distribution as company officials were deciding whether to go through all of its distributors or have the line exclusive to one company.
Pro Armor operates out of a 56,000-square-foot building in Riverside, Calif., a much larger facility that the company moved to last year after rapidly increasing sales forced it to find a larger manufacturing site.
— Neil Pascale