Aftermarket Q&A
PIAA
Wayne Hughes, powersports sales manager
What’s your biggest challenge for 2009?
For us, to continue to innovate and come out with new product, but also be really mindful of the direction the powersports industry is heading to. Trying for us to look ahead. It’s so hard to guess what the future is going to be, but just get in our mind what is going to be the next big growth area for powersports and try to have lights that fit that segment of the industry.
What new product is going to make the biggest impact for your company this year in terms of overall sales?
Probably will be our cross country HID. It’s a 4-inch length total enclosed HID. Very, very small and compact and it puts out an incredible amount of light, like all HIDs do. And price point below $600 for two lamps and everything you need, harness and everything. So we’re projecting that will be the top seller, and it will crossover markets from dirt to touring.
Pro Armor
Fred Brayton, sales and marketing manager
What’s your biggest challenge for 2009?
It’s the economy. To be honest, that’s our only holdup. We’ve really taken a big chunk out of all the companies that were here before us. We’ve really taken a lot of market share away from them, especially in this downtime. Before that, our biggest thing was just pure capacity because things were jamming so well. But with the softening of the economy, we have that under control and we reorganized our machines here in the new building so we conquered that one.
What new product is going to make the biggest impact for your company this year in terms of overall sales?
It’s not just a single product, but a product line that has been in development for the past year. It’s called the Pro Am series built by Pro Armor. It’s basically an economic alternative to Pro Armor parts. It will still be run through our shop, same way Pro Armor is run through with some minor tweaks.
LeoVince Exhaust Systems
Tim Calhoun, U.S. manager
What’s your biggest challenge for 2009?
Remaining flexible and maintaining market presence. By that I mean there are going to be people wearing a lot of hats in a company because there are going to be less people — at everybody’s company. You need to maximize all of your employees’ potential. We need to go out and maintain contact with our dealer network, with our distributors and our sales reps because everybody is feeling the pain.
What new product is going to make the biggest impact for your company this year in terms of
overall sales?
The new street (exhaust) line that we will introduce at Indianapolis. It is a unique line of street exhausts that an individual can customize or put his or her own signature on.
Cobra Engineering
Camron Bussard
What’s your biggest challenge for 2009?
Based on the past couple of years, our biggest challenge is being able to make enough product. The demand has far outstripped our ability to keep up, which is a good thing. If you look back at this time last year, everybody was doom and gloom. 2008 was going to be a tough year and everybody was kind of cautious. We went into it a little bit cautious as well and it turned out to be a great year in terms of customer demand, especially for accessories. For 2009, it’s again doom and gloom, and probably doomier and gloomier. But our plan is to go full speed ahead, both with our marketing and product development. We think it’s going to be another great year. Now’s not the time to back off.
What new product is going to make the biggest impact for your company this year in terms of overall sales?
On the exhaust side, I think people are looking for some more exciting exhaust that still make power but are quieter. We’ll be introducing a line of pipes that do all of those things, with new shapes, new sounds, new features to them. Instead of the traditional aftermarket exhaust system, it will be a much more sophisticated unit. I think that’s what customers are looking for.
Smith Optics
Ivan Penchansky, national sales manager
What’s your biggest challenge for 2009?
Our biggest challenge is to get the dealers to commit to the same levels that they have committed to in the past few years as far as purchasing product so they have product on the floor or in their warehouses to sell. We’re just trying to be there for our dealers and continue to emphasize the fact that if they don’t have the product in the store, they’re not going to sell it.
What new product is going to make the biggest impact for your company this year in terms of overall sales?
We’re working on some new styles for 2009 that we will release in the fall. We’re also doing some collaboration projects.
