2021 has been an eventful year for Hugo, Minn.-based Northern Wholesale Supply. The supplier to the RV and marine industries since 1984 came under new ownership in March when Rosemont, Ill.-based Wynnchurch Capital, a private equity firm, bought it. According to Dean Kruchten, director of sales and marketing, then-president and CEO Nick Gargaro had been looking to retire and found Wynnchurch a great fit to take over the company and help it grow.
Gargaro continues to serve on the company’s board of directors, Kruchten said, but after three-plus decades was happy to take a step back.
His successor is Chad Smith, who was named Northern’s new CEO in July. Smith had been vice president and general manager for BorgWarner, a global automotive supplier, in its North American Aftermarket division.
“The process which Wynnchurch went through to bring a new CEO into the business was one in which Nick had a lot of input and they were very thoughtful of the cultural fit,” he said. “And so (Smith has) been a really good fit for our culture. Like any business, we have a culture that works well and has made us successful, and the goal was not to change that.”
Even with the shift in ownership, the biggest change the company has experienced this year is that for the first time, it now has a real website.
Its online presence before the website? “None. We had a dealer portal and that was it,” Kructhen said.
“A big piece of that is, as a business-to-business supplier we felt like we didn’t need a website. We had been really successful in hiring by word-of-mouth and so the recruiting piece of it probably was lost, because we were just successful at recruiting by word of mouth. But as we’ve grown and the need to fill positions becomes greater, having an outward presence certainly was needed and then on top of it, a lot of times suppliers would hear of us from other suppliers or from customers and want to get an understanding of who we were before they called on us.
“You know, as we all do – you Google someone up before you call them to see who they are and what the corporate culture is,” Kruchten said.
The labor shortage is real, Kruchten said, and with no website the company was finding that advertising for workers to join its 350-person team would sometimes result in very little response. The new website has changed that overnight.
“In the RV and marine industries we really are selling a lifestyle, and those people that live that lifestyle really want to try and make it a career – so it’s been super helpful,” Kructhen said. “I would guess that upwards of 80 percent of our employees hunt, camp, fish, own an RV, own a boat – all those things.”
The new site even features a couple of testimonials from employees, talking about what a great place it is to work.
Northern Wholesale had a huge year from a revenue standpoint, Kruchten said, but at the same time a challenging one because of the supply chain and product pricing. Manufacturers continue to struggle with cost-containment, due to more expensive ocean-going container costs and the cost of raw goods.
Polymer resins, steel and anything with a computer chip in it are three problem areas in particular, he said.
“All of that has impacted both the aftermarket business and the OEMs,” Kruchten said.
Last year, Northern Wholesale’s annual show was held virtually and was very successful, he said. This year’s show is planned for Dec. 8 – 9 at the Treasure Island Resort in Red Wing, Minn., where it has been in past years.
“The rest of this year we’ll continue to be on a record pace, but we’ll also have to really work hard to service our dealers and help them service their consumers by making recommendations on equivalent part suggestions or things to get people on the road in the face of supply chain challenges,” Kruchten said.
