WPS adds Marshall with buy
Shoemaker: A win-win for everyone, including dealers
A pair of longtime friends and business associates became dealmakers, and the powersports distributorship has a new look because of it.
CEOs Craig Shoemaker of Western Power Sports and Roger Marshall of Marshall Distributing, Inc., have shared meals on other continents, but the relationship between both companies runs much deeper than buying group allegiances.
Roger Marshall and Duane Brobeck, Shoemaker’s father-in-law and the founder of WPS, share the same July 13, 1937, birthdate. And they both got their start in the snowmobile parts distribution business within a few years of each other.
Duane suffered an untimely death in 1996 at age 59, and Shoemaker, now president and CEO of WPS, admits that Roger then became a mentor of sorts in his career. Now, Marshall, 77, will be watching from a distance after Western Power Sports’ November acquisition of Marshall Distributing. Roger Marshall’s lone role now will be to collect rent on the Cass City, Mich., facility from WPS.
The initial results of the deal saw WPS 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 dealerships in those territories. The Cass City warehouse 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 customers but many are like friends and family. I am excited about bringing the two together.”
“The merger of the two companies will benefit 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 snowmobile 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 Marshall’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,” Shoemaker 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.”
