Tucker Powersports to Acquire Kuryakyn as In-House Brand
Tucker Powersports of Fort Worth, Texas - "a leading distributor of powersports products for motorcycles, ATV/UTVs, snowmobiles, personal watercraft as well as a range of electric bikes and scooters" - is to acquire Somerset, Wisconsin based Kuryakyn Holdings LLC.
"Tucker will incorporate the Kuryakyn product offering and product development into the Tucker organization this year. The acquisition will move Kuryakyn into the Tucker organization, rather than Kuryakyn operating as a separate business unit. All Kuryakyn operations, assets and R&D programs will move to Tucker's headquarters."
Tucker President and CEO Marc McAllister is quoted as saying that "this is a tremendous move for Tucker, for the Kuryakyn brand and for the dealers we serve.
"Kuryakyn's industry-leading products will continue to be available to dealers and customers while Tucker becomes an even stronger supplier to dealers not only in custom, cruiser and touring, but new market segments as well."
The September 7 statement from Tucker went on to say that "Kuryakyn is one of the nation's leading developers and retailers of motorcycle accessories for the V-twin, cruiser and touring motorcycle rider. The brand's newest products include a range of audio speakers for on and off-road use, LED lighting and motorcycle luggage. Founded nearly 30 years ago [by former Drag Specialties owner Tom Rudd], the company quickly became known for a range of chrome and custom accessories for motorcycles.
a tremendous move for Tucker
"Tucker leadership expects the transition will be complete by the end of the calendar year. Some of Kuryakyn's Somerset, Wisconsin employees will have an opportunity to join the Tucker staff in Fort Worth, Texas. Many of those moves will take place in the next 30 days. Kuryakyn's R&D department and equipment will move shortly thereafter."
Kuryakyn was one of the brands owned by the Monomoy Capital Partners, Contrarian Capital Management and Assured Investment Management (formerly Blue Mountain Capital Management) private equity consortium that rescued the Motorsport Aftermarket Group (MAG) from its insolvency filing in late 2018.
MAG itself had been bought by Indianapolis based Tucker Rocky owner Lacy Diversified Industries (LDI) in 2014 and "merged" with Tucker (as they are now known) to form a 'Metal to Motorcycle' business structure that could, in effect, self-distribute its products alongside third party brands.
Burdened by huge debt and compromised by ongoing market decline, LDI placed MAG, including Tucker and Kuryakyn, into insolvency with the private equity consortium taking ownership in a 'Pre-Pack' administration process.
By the beginning of 2019, however, MAG CEO Hugh Charvat recommended to the MAG board that the holding company be eliminated as an intermediary and the individual businesses allowed to report directly to the appointed board and to make their own business policies, including their own distribution decisions.
The strategy has been a success, with each of the MAG brands - Performance Machine, Vance & Hines, Progressive Suspension, Burly Brand and Mustang seats, as well as Kuryakyn and Tucker - seeing vastly improved performance in the past 24 months.
However, it had been public domain that, cognizant of their responsibilities to their own investors, the ownership consortium would have an open mind where alternative ownership options or other solutions became available for the individual business units on a moving forward basis.
Tucker had been one of Kuryakyn's primary (but not exclusive) distributor customers for nearly three decades. As this edition of AMD went to press it had not yet become fully apparent whether or not Tucker would continue Kuryakyn distribution through other outlets, including one of its domestic U.S. rivals, but the early signals were that it would be likely to do so.
As a Tucker brand, Kuryakyn will take its place alongside a powerful line-up of established in-house brands such as Twin Power, BikeMaster, Tucker V-TWIN, Biker's Choice and leading gear and apparel brands such as Speed & Strength and First Gear, and off-road brands such as Answer, Quad Boss, ProTaper and DragonFire.