Alex Fees: I'm Alex fees on Small Business Television, we're coming to you from SEMA 2008 that's Specialty Equipment Market Association in Las Vegas and joining me here now is Ethan Wendle, Ethan good to meet you.
Ethan Wendle: Nice to meet you.
Alex Fees: Ethan is co owner of a company out of Pennsylvania, where in Pennsylvania?
Ethan Wendle: It's in Philipsburg PA most people don't where that is its near state college, Penn State University near it.
Alex Fees: Okay, alright, the company is called DiamondBack Truck Covers; tell me about your company.
Ethan Wendle: DiamondBack Truck Covers was founded actually at Penn State University in 2002 by myself and my business partner Matt Chvrechko, while we were still in college. Penn State University has a really excellent Engineering Entrepreneurship Program that they really try to help kick out businesses and so our company was actually hatched in a class project where we had to develop a business so around a product or service and we developed it around a cover for trucks that would allow to actually hold additional items.
Alex Fees: Just covering a truck bed or pickup truck bed?
Ethan Wendle: Right, it's pickup truck bed so DiamondBack Truck Covers is Tonneau cover; it's a metal Tonneau cover.
Alex Fees: Tonneau
Ethan Wendle: Yeah Tonneau is the word that they used to describe basically all the covers for the backend of the truck, that's not a vinyl Tonneau cover or a fiber glass cover, it is a diamond plate, aluminum Tonneau cover.
Alex Fees: Oh really so this is a sturdier material.
Ethan Wendle: Exactly, it's a sturdier material, what it does is it allows the customer to secure what's -- the Tonneau covers in general are used to secure what's in the bed but the major drawback with the Tonneau cover is it heats the way you use your truck, so for instance a contractor, he may want to cover his whole bed so he can lock this tools but he still has to hold with his truck so it when the cover you're generally limited with our cover, you'll allow to hold upto 1600 pounds on top of it so the contractor can go to load and get can get forklift with shingles on top of this cover, while his tools stay underneath, so he can still use this truck to hold. And so it's really built around the concept of providing the security for truck bed but still then you hold with the truck. So we launched it in the class and brought it to market about 8 months after that.
Alex Fees: And Ethan, you can load things on top of it again because it is made out of that durable material.
Ethan Wendle: That's right, it's a patented design and that what it does is it combines the aluminum, basically aluminum exterior with structural bracing that runs through it, but it's multli-panel cover so it allows the costumer to be able to open it from the front and the back, to be able to remove panels, if they need to hold something tall but the real function of the product is being able to use the structural bracing to distribute that load, allow you to hold on top of that as well as underneath the cover.
Alex Fees: So Ethan you've dived right in to small business entrepreneurship before you're even out of college at that time right, that was about 6 years you say.
Ethan Wendle: That's correct in the 2002.
Alex Fees: How is it going?
Ethan Wendle: It's going well and it's been the most challenging 6 years of my life and who hasn't very challenging and still have a point but dropped out school and -- yeah, a manufacturing business is a tough business to be in, I think in any industry -- our industry has seen some tough years as well.
We have been able to grow the business we've moved it, our first install facility was in my business partner's trailer and we had a Drill Press mounted on his kitchen table and his daughter would walk around the floor and his wife would clean up the metal shaving. We expanded from that to a 2 car garage which was a huge expansion for us and then shortly thereafter got some manufacturing space. We slowly figured out that this industry as far as the dealers, distributors, how you get the product to market and just learned a lot of good stuff along the way and had a lot of setbacks along the way.
Alex Fees: So Ethan, have you bent to SEMA before?
Ethan Wendle: Yes, this is our third year exhibiting and 5th year been here, we came here as soon as we've started really just as an education, just trying learn the process who the players were, who the distributors were and then in 2006, we came for the first year and we've been back last year in 2007 and now this year in 2008.
Alex Fees: Any idea what this experience here at SEMA has done for you guys as far as exposure in kind of getting the word out?
Ethan Wendle: Sure, well this year one of our main focus is international, we have a fairly - we have about 700 dealers that sell our product line, so we're really not looking in the US for a lot of extra dealers, which is really what this show brings you but we really are trying to expand our international business, and my product is currently being sold in Europe and in some other markets limitedly but we're trying to expand that market over there. Our cover is the licensed cover for the Hummer H3T that just came out, so that's really what we're working on is expanding the internationals, working with GM on that product.
Alex Fees: So you say, you're not seeking anymore business here in America because you got enough.
Ethan Wendle: Well we'd always to love more business in America. At this point our dealer base is and we always think of new dealers, there is always some new dealers that we can add, really we're trying to expand our market share in this country with fleets that we work with, large fleet companies as well as retail people but the dealer base for us is not saturated by any means. There is obvious room for addition but we feel like the opportunities are greater for faster expansion internationally at this point.
Alex Fees: That's very -- that is a whole new world I'm sure as far as international marketing is concerned.
Ethan Wendle: It is, I'm really trying to work out the details at which countries have which tariffs, how we can get product to a market, who to deal with within the markets, obviously language, fortunately being in the US so you have a huge leg up because almost everybody speaks English.
Alex Fees: Alright, well, Ethan, come back next year and tell us how the international thing is going at SEMA 2009, alright.
Ethan Wendle: Okay alright, we'll do.
Alex Fees: Keep your seat, keep your seat. He is Ethan Wendle with DiamondBack Truck Covers at of Pennsylvania, I'm Alex fess on sbtv.com, we're coming to you from Las Vegas.
Alex Fees: Okay, we're going to do that close again here, let's see. So then with the whole international marketing thing, you can come back at SEMA 2009 and kind of let us know how that endeavor is going.
Ethan Wendle: Yeah, definitely thank you very much, good time.
Alex Fees: Good to meet you. I appreciate you being here. He is Ethan Wendle, co-owner of Diamond Back Truck Covers in Pennsylvania, I'm Alex fees on Small Business Television coming to you from SEMA 2008.
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