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Jun. 14, 2010 – Sales climb for hard parts manufacturer

A brand that is one of the few public entities of a sprawling aftermarket presence is nearing a milestone.
Namura Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of piston kits and gaskets for off-road vehicles, is approaching its 10th anniversary with its hard parts business at a higher volume than at any time in its existence, says Dale Nachman, owner of the Eagan, Minn.-based business.
Namura (pronounced Namoore-a) is one of four companies in three different countries owned by Nachman, who has turned an in-depth knowledge of the Taiwanese manufacturing market into a worldwide hard parts business. The Minnesota resident, who still spends two-three months annually in Taiwan, started Nachman International some 25 years ago and now runs a company that operates as a private brand supplier to distributors and OEMs as well as designs and markets Namura products.
The latter has clearly taken advantage of consumers’ increased appetite for fixing their off-road bikes and ATVs rather than buying new ones. “We’re for sure one of the winners on that end since that’s what we specialize in,” Nachman told Powersports Business at his Eagan, Minn., office.
Namura’s sales have steadily progressed in the past years, rising 30-50 percent each year as the company expanded its distribution sources across the United States. This year, the company’s sales have increased at an even faster pace — 65 percent, Nachman said.
“It’s just a matter of getting to show what it is and compare it to the competition,” he said of the burgeoning brand’s products, “and then it’s usually an easy decision for people to make.”
The Namura brand now employs 15 people, although it shares resources with the rest of Nachman International, which has more than 50 employees in the United States, Taiwan and China. That staff produces hard parts under a range of brand names, some of which are privately branded for partnering distributors. One such brand is Bronco, which is sold by Canadian distributor Gamma and includes shocks, engine valves and other items for utility ATVs.
“We’re not trying to shine ourselves in front of everybody,” Nachman said, referring to why most of the companies’ products are not promoted by Nachman International itself. “We’re just trying to do the work, do good business and we let the customers promote the brand as their brand.”
It’s all quite a progression for Nachman, who started in the industry by working for a Chinese company in Taiwan. The Chinese company was part of a budding snowmobile aftermarket industry, which was faring well as snowmobile sales were strong in the 1980s. Nachman, who moved to Taiwan when he was 19 years old, spent this time with the aftermarket company traveling around Taiwan and visiting manufacturers, “figuring out who made what and with what kind of quality.
“We spent a lot of time in the beginning filtering all of these guys out and making the mistakes you need to make to find out who knows what they’re doing,” he said.
Nachman later worked for Custom Chrome, opening an office for the V-twin distributor in Taiwan.
He eventually used his knowledge of Taiwan to start his own business. “You can do things quicker if you have the right relationships,” he said of Taiwan. Even though his company has since worked in other Far East countries, Nachman International still does 80 percent of its manufacturing business in Taiwan, as Nachman notes the country’s manufacturing plants still have “better, more accurate, more controlled delivery times and development times.”
Once Nachman moved to the United States, he started building a small number of distributor partnerships in North and South America.
“We don’t want people stepping on each others’ toes, and you need to give people room to grow,” he said of his business philosophy with distributors. “You don’t want your own customers competing with each other.”
During this period of growth, Nachman continued to focus on hard parts, deciding against venturing into other aftermarket areas.
“Yeah we can do garments; we can do accessories,” he said, “but what we’re going to be successful in year and year out, in good times and bad, is the hard parts, the replacement stuff.” psb

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