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www.PowersportsBusiness.com NEWS Powersports Business • December 1, 2014 • 7 who also is a former VP of marketing for S&S Cycle and now vice president of product devel- opment for Küryakyn. Kevin Miller, a former source development manager at Safco Prod- ucts, is now director of international sourcing and supply chain at Küryakyn. "So we now have the product development and the sourcing piece dialed-in and they're working together as a team," Mohr said, adding that with those two each focused on their own areas, yet working together, dealers should see better fill rates, better quality of product and faster speed to market. Küryakyn has also added to its marketing, sales and product development teams. All new hires in these departments have a common passion — motorcycles. "They ride — they get it!" Mohr said. Though about 20 new employ- ees had been added from January to August, 10 more positions were available as of mid- November. About 130 employees are based out of Küryakyn's headquarters near Minneapolis- St. Paul. "The tough part is recruiting the right people, but there's a lot of very, very talented motorcycle enthusiasts out there that have the background, the education and the know-how that do not want to work for that big, corpo- rate-type environment," Mohr said. "Küryakyn is probably one of the largest, if not the largest, player in the motorcycle aftermarket accessory business, but the way we operate is very differ- ent than the traditional corporate-type com- pany, and this has a certain appeal to a lot of people — especially people who want to talk to the guy who runs the company and show up in his office, where at these monster companies, you can't even get close to their office. We all share a love for motorcycles here, and we live that. And since we don't manufacture in house, the size of the company is not that large, so we all talk to each other on a daily basis." Next on the docket for Küryakyn is an increase in product development, growing the Crusher, Bahn and XKürsion brands, interna- tional growth and likely the development of more divisions and brands. PSB KÜRYAKYN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 close Marshall's warehouse in Sparks, Nev. In addition, Marshall warehouses closures will be happening this spring in Cass City, Mich., and Clifton Park, N.Y., due to the fact that WPS has warehouses in Indiana and Pennsylvania to provide coverage of the powersports dealer- ships in those territories. The Cass City ware- house has about 79,000 square feet of storage space on a 57,000 square-foot footprint. The Clifton Park warehouse is slightly larger. WPS plans to keep the Cass City office open with a phone sales force. "Chances are that Marshall Distributing will stay up there for many more years, unless Roger decides to sell the building. And if that happens we'll move into an office a mile or two away. Either way we're going to stay right there for a long, long time," Shoemaker said in an interview with Powersports Business. As for the warehouse reduction, WPS plans to be able to cover 90 percent of Marshall's overnight shipping territory with its locations. "We're excited to continue the long-term relationships the group of fellow enthusiasts at Marshall established throughout the years," Shoemaker said. "Like WPS, Marshall has a long and rich history in the powersports industry, and throughout their many years created lasting relationships with industry leading brands. Like Marshall, our dealers are not only our custom- ers but many are like friends and family. I am excited about bringing the two together." "The merger of the two companies will ben- efit our dealer network by providing the same quality service with the added advantage of a broader product line for the dealers to choose from," Roger Marshall said. Marshall started manufacturing snowmo- bile windshields in 1968, the same year WPS started selling aftermarket snowmobile parts. Marshall and Brobeck were part a group of 20-something snowmobile racers who learned early on that they could run a snowmobile business and continue to do what they love Today, WPS distributes 120,000 products, and now adds Marshall's 50,000 part numbers. The immediate future will be business as usual at Marshall, with its Michigan and New York distribution warehouses continuing to fill daily orders; and inside sales, customer service and tech support staff staying in place at its Michigan headquarters. WPS will begin the process of merging Mar- shall's outside sales force with the existing WPS sales group over the next few months, with a goal of completing the merger as seamless as possible. Boise-based Shoemaker spent five days at Marshall's Cass City headquarters to inform the employees of the transaction and get to know their processes. "We took inventory of all the warehouses, and I brought up our people who were looking at how their catalog people operate, what the purchasing people do, HR concerns," Shoe- maker said. "And of course we began talking to vendors. I think the biggest concern of the employees was based around 'Who are you going to have here to manage us?' And for me it was like 'Are you kidding?' Why would I send somebody here to do that? They are great employees and have been for years, and I think by the time I left they understood that we would be turning to them. Basically what we're doing is allowing people to not ask many questions, and just do their jobs. Now they're responsible, not someone else." Shoemaker was pleased to see that after a less-than-warm first 48 hours in Michigan, several employees had begun to inquire about a move to the Boise office. "By the time I left, I was literally getting hugs," he said. "They couldn't believe people would really care this much. They got the vibe that this is going to be totally different than what they thought. "It's a win-win for everybody, including the dealers. We're planning to keep the flow as smooth as possible. The dealers will continue to work with the same people, in most cases, that they've been turning to for years." PSB WPS CONTINUED FROM COVER