Page 5 - PULSE_5_IRONPONY

CHRIS JONES
When and how did you discover that you had a passion or interest in motorsports and
how did that transfer to the inception of Iron Pony? The way I first discovered a passion for mo- torsports -- a kid a couple doors up from me when I was young brought home a mini cycle, rode it around in his backyard, and I was sold. But the way we got into the business was my dad had some NAPA Auto Parts stores. Way back in the late 60’s and early 70s, he had an employee that went out to California and when he came back, he said that custom vans and motorcycles are what’s happening. For a while we sold some custom van acces- sories and got into motorcycle accessories, and as a young man that part of my father’s business was way more interesting than selling auto parts. The motorcycle accessory side was a whole lot more fun for me -- a lot more colors, early off-road leathers, street-style leather jackets, and that was much cooler to me. As I went off to college, I was getting off of school early and I’d come down and run what was Iron Pony at the time (a very small parts
and apparel business.) For a short time, I was on the road as a distributors rep for a lot of midsize and smaller distributors. I thought that something was going on with larger motorcycle shops and I became very frustrated as a manufacturer and distributor rep going to these shops. I’d show them product that I knew their customers wanted, because we were selling it at Iron Pony, and they wouldn’t buy it and couldn’t understand. They looked at me as more of a hinderance coming into the store instead of another avenue to make money. So, I told my dad that I needed to buy Iron Pony ‘cause I’ve got a new concept and I want to go big and grow Iron Pony. So, I got back off the road and put together a couple people that I had as reps and a couple people that I worked with, and we really launched full tilt into growing Iron Pony. I potentially never even imagine that we’d become what we’ve become now, so it worked well and I’ve still got a couple of those original employees that have been with me for thirty plus years, and a number of others that have been with us twenty plus years. I’d put our years of knowledge in this industry up against anyone in the country or anyone in the world. I loved it and continued to learn more about the parts and products, and continued to grow the business to what it is today. My wife, Tammy, and I and our CFO, Cory Atwood, have grown Iron Pony organically from a 1,400 sq ft. shop to about a 4,000 sq ft. shop, to a 22,000 sq ft. shop, to an 100,000 sq ft. shop, now to a 147,000 sq ft. shop. Along the lines a couple years ago we also
bought another location in a town about an hour north of Columbus.
>>
WWW.IRONPONY.COM
5