Growing partnerships, new products and a revamped website

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]etween now and this time last year, K&L Supply has been busy, to say the least. In that time, the company has expanded its product line, revamped its website and moved its headquarters to a new, larger location in Santa Clara, CA. K&L has even found time to open a couple of new distribution centers along the way.

What has been driving this expansion? Mike Salvador, sales and marketing manager for K&L Supply, says that growing the partnership with Yamaha has been one of the reasons.

“Our Yamaha business has really grown pretty well this year,” says Salvador. “We work hand-in-hand with Yamaha to develop new tools for their Marine and Motorsports divisions. Additionally, when they bring out a new vehicle, they often have a specialty tool that is an essential tool for their dealers. In the U.S., we’re the one that make all of their tools. If there’s a marine tool, there are 2,000 dealers. It’s a big order for us.”

K&L has also brought in more than 700 new items this year, including equipment, parts, tools and applications for many of the major OEMs.

“One of the things we’re really excited about is our new DOT trailer. We saw a need for a quality trailer that can fit some of the wider Honda UTVs on the market, in addition to carrying up to three dirt bikes, two motorcycles or ATVs,” Salvador adds. “With other trailers, you’d have to pull the vehicles on sideways as they won’t fit otherwise.”

As of press time, K&L was debating where the trailer would be displayed at AIMExpo, but it will surely grab dealers’ attention no matter where they place it. It has an airbag mechanism to raise the bed instead of doing it manually.

It also features a remote control so a bike can be ridden on to it, and it comes with three standard wheel chocks. You can fit three dirt bikes on it or a bagger and a street bike. You can take the wheel chocks off to fit a UTV as well, and it also comes with ramps. One of the best features is it stands up for easy storage.

Some of the other items K&L will have on display at its AIMExpo booth includes a new MC900 Tire Machine, MC655R Lifts and MC17 Cycle Vise, which will all be set up for demonstrations during the trade and consumer days of the show.

One of the cool things K&L is currently working on is revamping its website. Salvador says there will be a retail side as well as a dealer portal. The upgrades include online ordering, live inventory checking, dealer locator and mobile compatibility, so that finding parts and equipment dealers need most will be easier than ever.

Salvador admits that others have done some of these things already but they are going to fine tune it for dealers. “Our dealers want live inventory levels and the ability to order online. We’re giving that to them with a lot of other cool features. We’re also supporting our dealers with a new dealer locator to make it easier for people to find them. We want to get people back to our site instead of shopping for it somewhere else.”

With the move to new headquarters now complete, and the two additional distribution centers in the mix along with the updated website, K&L is expanding in multiple channels – which will all be a bonus for dealers in 2017.

Be sure to stop by Booth 1212 at AIMExpo to see what K&L has to offer, or visit their new website at www.klsupply.com.