New ownership group brings resources to ITP
ITP still stands as the top-selling aftermarket ATV and side-by-side tire and wheel manufacturer. Only now, ITP will have more resources behind it as aims for continued growth.
On Dec. 31, American Industrial Partners, a middle-market private equity firm focused on acquiring and improving North American-headquartered industrial businesses, acquired ITP’s parent company, the Transportation Products division of Carlisle Companies Inc. (CTP).
Beyond its powersports footprint, CTP, founded in 1917, builds tires, wheels and power transmission belts for the outdoor power equipment, ag/construction and trailer markets.
“We are very excited about the acquisition of CTP,” AIP’s Joel Rotroff said in a press release. “The company has built a very strong brand over its nearly 100-year history and is the market leader in the majority of the markets in which it competes.”
“Working alongside an exceptional management team and talented collection of employees, we plan to drive operational enhancements that will allow CTP to more efficiently and effectively serve the needs of our global customers,” said Justin Fish of AIP.
“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with the American Industrial Partners team,” said Kevin Forster, CEO of CTP. “As a standalone company, we intend to further invest in our business and build on our long-standing customer relationships and market leading distribution network to further differentiate CTP from its competitors.”
For Rhett Turpin, ITP Powersports director of sales and marketing, it has been an immensely positive experience in the early going.
“They’ve been very fast paced, very fast paced, yes,” said Turpin, who began working in the company’s distribution warehouse in 1982. “But it’s been great. Even only four months in, we’re already seeing tremendous progress in efficiencies in our factories, in our finance department and distribution centers. They’re all manufacturing operations and finance gurus. They had a distinct advantage to come in and assist us in improving manufacturing efficiencies and getting things straight on the finance side. They’re distribution geniuses as well, so they’re making sure we’re streamlining the way we get the product to the distributors. And they’re making sure we’re being all we can be to our OEM partners.”
And while ITP was once a cornerstone business of Carlisle Companies, it’s now a stand-alone operation that will benefit from AIP’s infrastructure and capital spend.
From aftermarket to OEM to private labeling, ITP products are known for their durability and longevity. In addition, Turpin said the company’s product development team has provided it with an edge in the side-by-side tire market.
“We saw the direction that the OEMs were taking and we felt like it was the real deal and wasn’t going to go away, at which point we started adding a little more definition to new product development as far as making sure it was side-by-side capable,” Turpin said.
Dealers, Turpin says, have found ITP’s ability to provide a consistent supply of product to be a benefit.
“We’re American-based manufacturing, and we can get it to them much quicker. The markets are not that easy to predict sometimes, so we can react and adapt to the market changes much quicker than say an Asian-based manufacturer. You may have 30 days on the water to get product here, and in 30 days the market can shift. So it’s been a big advantage for us.”
That same ability to adapt to changing sizes and tastes has helped its OEM business growth.
“We’ve noticed how the OEMs are becoming more and more nimble and we’ve been able to do a good job of maintaining the cadence that they’re moving at,” Turpin said.
