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AFTERMARKET Known for its snowmobile clutches, Comet expanding under CPC ownership BY DAVE McMAHON EDITOR IN CHIEF Comet clutches continue to be an optimal aftermarket option in all powersports seg- ments. Known mostly for its penetration into the snowmobile and go-kart marketplaces, Comet maintains continued growth thanks to improvements in size and staffing at its Edger- ton, Wisconsin, manufacturing facility. But the 200,000-square-foot operation that once was home to various other brands owned by parent Certified Parts Corp. (CPC) has not always cranked out clutches and torque converters. In fact, CPC acquired Comet from receivership in 2009, moving the company from Richmond, Indiana, to its current loca- tion. A whirlwind turn of events brought CPC, the former owner of Arctic Cat, to purchase the tooling, inventory and intellec- tual property of Comet. Jim Grafft, founder and CEO of CPC, first became familiar with Comet in 1982, when he took over owner- ship of Arctic Cat. CPC had been a distributor of Comet products and had watched the brand rise over the years. So when CPC offi- cials got word of a potential Comet slowdown in 2009, the company took notice. "We got an email from them saying that they would be shut- ting down for a month or two and that they were going to try to straighten things out," Jim's son, Jay Grafft, now vice presi- dent of Comet, told Powersports Business. Efforts by CPC officials to reach the Comet owners came up short, but soon they learned Comet had gone into receivership. CPC even- tually contacted the bank that was selected to liquidate Comet's assets. Jim and Jay, fresh off a return business trip from the Czech Repub- lic the night before, drove to Indiana for the Comet auction. "We showed up at the auction and met with a former employee to get a walkaround and a lay of the land at their facility," Jay said. "We got about an hour tour, then the auction started. The first thing that went up was the intellectual property, and we bought that. Next thing was the name, trademarks and patents. We bought that. And then, lot by lot, they auc- tioned off the entire building, and we bought all the inventory — a bucket of fixed faces, a pallet of movable faces, crates of spiders. All of the inventory, just like that." Jim knew that such a quality product would be an ideal fit for his company's portfolio, which over the years has included brands like TecumsehPower, Lauson, Scorpion snowmo- biles, Wetbike and more. "Comet was one of my top 10 vendors," said Jim, who began his career at Fox Corp., which made mini bikes and go-karts. "We were buying clutches from them, and I knew the brand and the family well. So we were famil- iar with the company, i n d e e d . W e w e r e n ' t going into it cold." What made Comet clutches one of CPC's top products before it took ownership? "They're a world- class manufacturer," he said. "You try to get a vendor number from H o n d a , K a w a s a k i , Yamaha — it was very difficult to do business with those companies, where you could sup- ply them with a product. Comet had done that. They were a manufacturer that was well recognized. So at first when we bought them, it was difficult to deal with the OEMs. Those companies aren't looking for vendors that they don't know. It takes a long time to get qualified with them. So we had to set our bar and jump over it. That was one of our first struggles, but we successfully got the vendors' numbers with every one of the manufacturers that Comet had supplied prior to our ownership, and that's a tall order." That December 2009 auction date was just the start for Comet's new ownership by CPC. By February 2010, American-made clutches were being supplied to OEMs and sold to after- market distributors in the powersports market. "It's an elastic product line, meaning we can talk from side-by-sides to scooters to cement trowels. We even build clutches for log split- ters, and our biggest ones are for amusement park rides," Jim said. "It's a diversified product line that we felt was enduring and would stand the test of time." And while Comet supplies to many familiar powersports OEMs, it's also nimble enough to treat smaller orders with equal attention. "There's a niche market out there for 20 pieces to 150 pieces that most companies don't even want to talk to you about," Jay said. "They don't want to take the time to make a cus- tom bore for your crankshaft. Knowing there's a market out there for those sizes, and we have a full machine shop to make those products. I say why not? If we have to bore some out to ¾, let's bore some out to 17mm while we're at it." Of course, the fact that all of Comet's parts are made in the U.S. is not lost on their partners. "That's something we've been trying to drive home," Jay said. "A lot of the OEMs are doing their own work in the U.S. as well, and that means something to them. A few of them have worked with offshore companies for their clutching, but they want to use Comet because they know it's going to last." The factory in Edgerton has slightly less than 100 employees, with more growth coming as the business continues to build. Comet, for example, brought its injection molding capaci- ties in house after previously outsourcing it. "We had too many suppliers that missed ship dates and made promises they could not keep," Jay said. "I said 'I want to become our own supplier.' I want to know what's going on on the shop floor. I want to know what parts are being machined. When I tell the customer that all we have to do is bore out your clutch and broach a keyway, I know that is 100 per- cent factual, and we can hit ship dates. We had been relying on others for welding, broaching and certain other machine work, and they weren't reliable." Now, Comet is supplying aftermarket dis- tributors, including Parts Unlimited, Western Power Sports, Automatic Distributors and Kimpex, as well as others in Europe, Puerto Rico and Mexico. "If you have a toy, we make a clutch for it, anything from 2 hp up to 200 hp," Jim said. The construction market has helped grow revenues in recent years also. As for the pow- ersports segment, Comet expects its brand recognition to flourish in the coming years, particularly in the snowmobile aftermarket. "We don't supply to any snowmobile OEMs direct for production, but we're one of the only companies that can say we're OEM and after- market at the same time," Jay said. "When we owned Arctic Cat, we were buying clutches from Comet. The same clutches that Arctic Cat used to buy are the same ones that we make now. It can be an aftermarket clutch and still be an OEM clutch. That's pretty unique to Comet." Comet's diversification since becoming owned by CPC has allowed it to reach new markets and grow in others, including saw mills and moose haulers in Sweden. "If you had snowmobile sales driving your ship in the last couple of years, you might not have a big ship anymore," Jay said. "We try to service many different segments so that we don't have just one that's driving us forward." Jim, meanwhile, is proud to have seen the major steps Comet has taken under CPC's direction. "It's no small step to have gotten ourselves recertified with the major OEMs that we were doing business with before," Jim said. "That was basically certification of our ability to move the manufacturing and reinstate all the pro- cesses here in Wisconsin. From there we keep getting back to the service parts segment of the business. Now that we've done that, we're able to go knock on doors." Exceeding on quality and delivery expecta- tions is part of the Comet mantra and will con- tinue to steer the company. "The number one goal we had after we bought Comet was to start supplying these replacement parts, so the OEMs could keep their customers happy," Jay said. "They had product out there that they were not able to fix due to Comet going under. After that, for the past six years, we've just continued to develop those relationships, hit delivery dates and pro- vide great service." PSB Comet clutches thriving after purchase 42 • September 6, 2016 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com Jim and Jay Grafft, pictured outside Comet's plant in Edgerton, Wisconsin. Comet's 108 EXP clutch supports more than 300 different Arctic Cat, Yamaha, Polaris and Ski-Doo fitments.