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2015 Ford Focus ST and Ford F-350 Super Duty Smokestacks.
Breaking news from SEMA members, including the Coker Group, Champion Oil, Marx Group Advisors, ESAB-a member of the Colfax group of companies, Fox Factory Holding Corp., and more.
The SEMA Launch Pad competition, in which automotive innovators under the age of 40 showcase their business plans for marketing a product or service, has returned for 2014. Last year’s inaugural winner was Jonathan Mill for the E-Stopp, a pushbutton emergency brake and anti-theft device for custom vehicles.
For the 2014 competition, the top 10 competitors will gather votes through the SEMA Facebook/YouTube voting platform. The top five individuals will then receive invitations to pitch their business ideas during a special event in front of an industry-fueled crowd at the 2014 SEMA Show.
According to a SEMA study on the utility task vehicle (UTV) market, nearly 82% of UTV owners have purchased or plan to purchase equipment upgrades for their vehicles. This means that 410,000 households in the United States buy UTV accessories, with the average enthusiast spending $1,700 on parts.
This means that 410,000 households in the United States buy UTV accessories, with the average enthusiast spending $1,700 on parts.
Get to Know the Nominees
Five candidates entered this year’s election, each vying for a position on the 2014–2017 SEMA Board of Directors. The SEMA Board provides strategic direction to the association and plays a critical role in shaping the future of the automotive specialty-equipment industry.
Voting for the 2014–2017 SEMA Board of Directors Election opened May 14 and will be available online until June 10. Voting is open to current SEMA members, and votes must be submitted by the designated primary contact of each voting SEMA-member company.
A Classic Segment, Still Growing Strong
Who isn’t thrilled by the look and performance roar of a classic hot rod? Virtually synonymous with the earliest days of the automotive specialty-equipment industry, hot rodding never seems to grow old. In fact, the market segment has remained incredibly resilient, even in the face of the recently bumpy economy.
Even Easier With a New Crop of Tools
With technology’s relentless evolution, businesses have a fresh crop of digital tools that they can use to pinpoint hot recruiting prospects in cyberspace and grab la crème de la crème before they get away. Social-media sniffers, mobilized career websites and video interviewing have all received major upgrades in the past year, making it even easier for businesses to snag prime candidates.
It’s been quite a year for SEMA on the technology front. Just last May, the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) went live for the first time with a fully functioning Product Information Management System. Since that time, more than 300 industry suppliers have engaged with the SDC to gather, validate, store and distribute their product data to more than 350 data receivers—a number that is growing every week.
In order to eliminate as many roadblocks to data distribution as possible, the SDC is providing free unlimited data exports to all SEMA-member receivers, along with proactively helping suppliers improve their data sets with expert Help Desk services and powerful, online, do-it-yourself data-management tools.
Record Number of SEMA Members Participate in Third Annual Visit to the United Arab Emirates
Whether the motivating factor is to hedge against future downturns in the U.S. economy or to sell to the 95% of consumers residing outside the United States or a combination of the two, SEMA members are increasingly reaching out to overseas resellers. Todd Lindblade, regional sales manager for Extang, based in Michigan, explained one of the reasons why his company and 41 other SEMA members recently spent a week in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) meeting with buyers from throughout the region.