SPENCER, Iowa | Once it completed the sale of a line of all-terrain vehicle accessories to Kolpin Outdoors, of Fox Lake, Wis., Cycle Country Accessories last year adopted the name of Simonsen Iron Works -- a name drawn from a more than a century of heritage.
Now a wholly owned subsidiary of ATC Venture Group, Simonsen was founded in 1906 by blacksmith N.C. Simonsen in nearby Sioux Rapids. The then third-generation company expanded to Spencer in 1994, and was acquired by Cycle Country in 2005, after having done metal fabrication projects for Cycle Country for more than 25 years.
With its long history of ATV accessories behind it, the former Cycle Country this month is completing its acquisition of KW Manufacturing, of Sioux Falls.
KW, which used the brand name Kwik-Way, has been engaged in the manufacture of several dozen different accessories like dozer and loader blades for skid steer loaders, said Simonsen CEO Bob Davis.
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Davis said the customer base for the KW product lines included five of the top companies in the skid-steer loader business -- John Deere, Bobcat, Case-IH, Simplicity and Gehl. Davis said he hopes to be able to expand on the established relationships those companies have had with KW.
Simonsen President Aaron Schulz said that while Simonsen has been functioning as a job shop through the last year, he has had his crews making the plant more efficient. He called it "re-culturing and rebuilding -- getting people to change how we manufacture."
"We had made our own products. Now we're heavy into the contract side," Schulz said. "And we want to make a good first impression to potential customers. ... The floors are cleaner. Tools are better organized. There's a big change in what the facility looks like. We want people to take pride in what we do"
The largest task in the KW acquisition has been converting the company's paper plans to a digital format Simonsen's automated equipment can use. "We're trying to complete that last step so we can close the deal," Davis said.
While Simonsen has been making things like blades for ATVs, it will be making similar but bigger blades for loaders. Instead of blades from 4 to 6 feet in length, it will now be making blades 8 to 10 feet long. "We like the synergy of it," Davis said.
Looking toward other synergistic expansions, Davis said, "We hope to do two or three (acquisitions) a year. We could integrate four to six of these a year. They're not that big or complex. We aren't going to though. It takes more cash than we'll have available. Our goal is to buy two to three a year of the same size (as KW)."
"Our focus is to maintain what we're good at, which is the production side. We don't want to be going into things that require us to build a huge sales and marketing and distract from our competency in manufacturing."
Simonsen has received a $200,000 loan from the Iowa Department of Economic Development to aid in the KW purchase. The three-year loan caries no interest.
Simonsen also is involved with ongoing job training funds from the state.
