June 5, 2006 – Distributor Report

Floe International names new president
Don VanderMey was named president of Floe International, taking over day-to-day management of the company and replacing Bob Jordan.
VanderMey has spent the past 10 years at Floe serving as manager, territory sales consultant and director of sales and marketing, responsible for all advertising, customer service, sales and shipping personnel.
Wayne Floe, CEO and founder of Floe International, said Jordan was originally brought in because of his manufacturing background. “When I hired Jordan I was looking for someone that had a strong lean enterprise background and he presented me with a very good resume,” Floe said. “I’ve since taken other steps to accomplish the lean goals of the company and felt a change in leadership was necessary.
“The Floe mission statement basically says that, in order to be healthy, Floe International has to keep three things in balance: 1) We have to satisfy our market; 2) we have to satisfy our employees; and 3) make a profit now and into the future. If you violate anyone of these three the other two will also struggle.”
“Don is a very bright person who can see the big picture and fulfill Floe International’s mission statement,” Floe said.
Motion Pro Connects Internet Sales to Dealers
Motion Pro, Inc., San Carlos, Calif., has teamed with Shopatron Inc., San Luis Obispo, Calif., a company that provides ecommerce solutions to manufacturers that want to capture online sales without disrupting their existing distributor and dealer relationships.
Already well-established in the sports apparel, shoe and toy markets, Shopatron allows consumers the ability to purchase Motion Pro cables, throttles, levers, tools and accessories online from the Motion Pro Web site, www.motionpro.com. Orders placed with Motion Pro on its Web site are fulfilled by dealers that have signed up with Shopatron.
“We could not be more excited about the benefits that Shopatron allows us, our distributors and our dealers,” said Motion Pro President Chris Carter. “Customers come to our Web site ready to buy, and with Shopatron we can capture those sales right away and then have those web sales ready to be fulfilled by our retail dealers. This is a win-win situation for Motion Pro, for our distributors, and for our dealers.”
Signing up with Shopatron is free for powersports dealers and requires no obligations.
“Orders placed online on the Motion Pro Web site are transferred electronically to Shopatron,” said Motion Pro Sales Manager Brandon Baldwin. “Participating dealers can enter the Shopatron Web site to view those orders and select orders that they want to fulfill. Shopatron then awards each order to the dealer nearest to the customer and instructs the dealer to ship the order within 24 hours.”
Motion Pro sets the retail price charged on each order and a freight charge is added to each order. Shopatron deducts a fee from each order and pays the dealer every 15 days for all their shipments.
“Every dealership can now participate in ecommerce sales without the cost and expense of creating their own Web site,” Baldwin said. “All they need is a computer with Web access and email.”
S&S Hires New Director of Sales, Marketing
S&S Cycle, Inc. has hired a new director of sales and marketing to oversee operational and strategic sales and marketing initiatives, working primarily at the Customer Support Center in La Crosse, Wis.
Timm Fields joins S&S after leaving United Conveyor Corporation in Waukegan, Ill., where he held positions in pricing, inventory control, material planning and parts marketing. He holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Department managers representing communications, customer support, marketing, race, sales (dealer & distributor), training and warranty and rebuild will be reporting to Fields.
S&S President Brett Smith said Fields’ experience with worldwide sales efforts of replacement parts products and services, managing sales staff, media, tradeshows and Web site marketing allowed him to fill the position.
J&P Cycles Breaks Ground in Florida
J&P Cycles owners John and Jill Parham were at Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach on April 26 to break ground for J&P Cycles’ new retail store and call center. The new 35,000 square foot location, located just north of the Daytona Harley-Davidson dealership, will include a 24,000 square foot showroom and an 11,000 square foot second floor call center.
J&P Cycles is marketed as the world’s largest catalog retailer of aftermarket parts and accessories for Harley-Davidson, V-twin cruiser and sportbike motorcycles.
“We are extremely excited to get construction under way,” said John Parham. “Being part of Destination Daytona is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for J&P Cycles. We originally hoped to have the new store open for Biketoberfest this fall, but Bike Week 2007 is more realistic.”
EVS Sports Launches New Brand
EVS Sports has launched a new brand of personal protective gear designed specifically for the industrial safety market. Called LIFT Safety, the line was designed to offer a progressive and revitalized approach to industrial safety gear.
“For more than 20 years we have protected athletes in one of the most physically demanding sports in the world and we look forward to sharing our innovative approach with the industrial safety market,” said Guido Rietdyk, president of EVS Sports. “The initial LIFT product line clearly demonstrates our vision for personal safety gear and certainly sets the tone for our future product offerings.”
The LIFT Safety line includes three styles of safety glasses and one full coverage safety goggle. Each new style meets latest ANSI Z87.1 safety specifications and is engineered to provide fit and lightweight performance. Completing the LIFT Safety line is a series of specialty work gloves, hearing protection, back belts, ergonomic supports, work bags and apparel.
Visit www.liftsafety.com for more information.
Dealership University Expands Offerings
Dealership University, an Atlanta-based developer of online, interactive training courses for the powersports industry, has added 39 product knowledge courses covering the product features and benefits of Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha vehicles.
Dealership University management says the online training courses offer dealers a systematic way to educate and test their sales staff on the product features and real-world customer benefits of leading manufacturers’ vehicles so they can strengthen their presentations and close more deals.
“All too often dealership salespeople mention feature after feature when speaking with an interested buyer, but forget to explain how those features will affect the user’s experience,” said Rod Stuckey, president of Dealership University. “We have designed our new product knowledge courses to educate salespeople on the product features as well as the benefits of these features so salespeople will be able to articulate the real-world product benefits and intelligently answer customer questions during their presentations.”
Each online course features an interactive combination of audio, videos, graphics and text complemented by self-checks throughout.
The courses, segmented by manufacturer, product type and vehicle class, present the product features, discuss the consumer benefits of the features, and include a test to track the participant’s comprehension and course completion. Additionally, all Dealership University online training courses include tracking features for dealers and managers to track the progress of their individual employees.
The new product knowledge courses are available immediately via Dealership University’s online training interface. To learn more, visit www.dealershipuniversity.com/productknowledge.html.
Custom Chrome Partners with Kodlin
Custom Chrome, a division of Global Motorsport Group, Inc., announced a new strategic design partnership with European motorcycle builder Fred Kodlin.
Kodlin will join other designers, like Rick Doss and John Reed, to create new parts and accessories for Twin Cam model motorcycles to be manufactured and distributed by Custom Chrome globally.
“I am looking forward to the new alliance with Custom Chrome and to developing world class parts for Twin Cam models,” Kodlin said while at his business in Germany. “This new partnership will set the standard for all things Twin Cam. My first designs will be available in the 2007 Custom Chrome catalog.”
Under new management, Custom Chrome is centering its growth plans on investing in research, development and distribution of innovative parts and accessories.
ADP Dealer Services Awarded
ADP Dealer Services has been honored with the Service & Support Professionals Association’s (SSPA) STAR Award for Best Practices in Support Technology for the third consecutive year. The SSPA STAR Award recognizes the best practices of select technology companies across all industries that consistently result in the highest level of customer satisfaction.
A business unit of Automatic Data Processing, Inc., ADP Dealer Services provides integrated computing solutions to nearly 25,500 powersports, marine and automobile dealers throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, China, Europe and the Middle East.
Ohio Dealer Wins WPS Hummer H3
Steve Kame of Kame’s Sport Center in North Canton, Ohio, won a WPS/Michelin Hummer H3 in a giveaway program offered by Western Power Sports.
Kame was one of five dealer finalists to vie for the Hummer during a Las Vegas Supercross weekend trip. Each of the finalists received a key and Kame’s key — the fourth one that was tried — ended up being the winning one.
Other finalists included Rick Beers of Cycle Gear, Tom Phipps of Mountain Valley Engine, Luann Whitcomb of Support Plus Racing and Cathy Hager of Hager Motorsports.
Michelin North America, K&N Filters and KMC Wheels supported the giveaway program.
NextStep DMS Feature Designed to Simplify Forecasting
NextStep says a new feature for its popular Dealer Management System, PartsLookup DMS, makes it easier to calculate profitability quickly for any estimate, work/repair order or invoice.
Called Profit Center, the new feature includes a wide range of business controls and integrates with the PartsLookup DMS sales and inventory management software system. NextStep management says the offering focuses on reliability and ease of use.
“Profit Center saves time and makes it easy to figure out profits at each stage of the sale process,” said Jay Hubelbank, principal at NextStep. “Dealers can be assured that an estimate is profitable before it’s given to a customer. The profit is just one click away after developing the estimate.”
NextStep has been producing Dealer Management Software for authorized and independent powersports dealerships since 1996.
Helmets, Inc. Expands
Helmets, Inc., Birmingham entrepreneur Todd Sobel’s wholesale motorcycle helmet distribution company, which four years ago operated out of his basement, recently relocated to a 43,750 square foot facility.
Helmets Inc. is a wholesale distributor of Rodia and Caliber helmet lines. The company supplies more than 900 national and international motorcycle shops and franchises.
“Our primary reason for relocating was to provide more space for our mounting inventory,” Sobel said. psb