Small Business Stories -Line-X

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com's coverage of SEMA 2008 here in Las Vegas. I'm Ivy Hartman, and with me is John Wesley, the CEO of Line-X. John welcome to SBTV.com. John Wesley: Thank you very much, nice seeing you again this year. Ivy Hartman: Absolutely. Okay, well for our viewers who aren't familiar with Line-X, talk about what Line-X is. John Wesley: Well, Line-X is a Protective Coating company; we have 472 franchise system throughout the United States. We have number one market share in our space, about 38% of the trucks sold, that have spray-on bedliners applied to them Line-X does the spray-on bedliners of choice. Ivy Hartman: Interesting, are you finding, I mean, we go right into the franchisee question, about the economy currently? Are you seeing a direct impact of the economy in the franchise business? John Wesley: It's a good and a bad impact. Ivy Hartman: Okay. John Wesley: The impact of high gasoline prices and the credit crunch certainly has had an impact on the amount of trucks that are produced and sold, and that does impact our business sometimes in a negative way. On the positive side of that when businesses contract, great people unfortunately lose their jobs, and they look for safe havens to work. And a lot of folks can't afford the tier 1 fast food franchises, so they move down and pick the people who like automotive applications, it can be very good for franchise systems, and for Line-X specifically. Ivy Hartman: Now I want to congratulate you, you guys are going to be awarded the Best New Product Award by Frost and Sullivan this year, talk about the new product you're launching. John Wesley: We're really excited about that, it's a product that we developed in house, their own technology. And at 2 o'clock today, Frost and Sullivan is going to be in our booth and recognizing house for that. The product itself is called ReNew, and there are over 2 million trucks in the marketplace that have some type of spray-on bedliner in them. And based on some utility of the vehicle, they get beat up, they get scratched, they get banged, in some cases they fade, and this product really rejuvenates and renews those old truck beds back to their original condition. It works on all makes all models, we can apply our product, our Line-X brought across any competitive products, and bring them back to life, and it's a great product, extends the life and duty of the vehicle. Ivy Hartman: And in addition to that Line-X is also doing some industrial applications. John Wesley: We are, we certainly are, we talked before about -- as trucks, trucks contract and what goes up, comes down, and what comes down, goes up, and we fully anticipate truck sale to rebound dramatically. But at the same time our product has thousands of users, whether be an agricultural users, or sand and gravel users, commercial industrial utility boxes, truck accessories, there are lots of things that Line-X can be sprayed on. Ivy Hartman: Do you have anything new that you guys other than the new product this year, a new approach to SEMA 2008, than you have in the previous years? John Wesley: I think SEMA is a great place to showcase new products, but it's also a great showplace to talk about your existing products. We, it gives us an opportunity to network with accessory manufacturers, and the original part manufacturers. We have I think 32 trucks in this venue that have some Line-X on them, some we worked greatly with, but other people just like the product, and people buying trucks whether they're buying a small Ford Ranger or a Super Duty $60,000 truck, it's such an inexpensive way to extend the life and utility of the vehicle, and add a value at resale. So SEMA is a great showcase, we're proud to be a member of SEMA, we support them, and they support the aftermarket where we play. So it's a great show. Ivy Hartman: Okay, now color coated applications. John Wesley: Sure. Ivy Hartman: It really, you can also get it in black. John Wesley: You know, we've moved beyond the old Ford model, than having a color you want with black, and in June of 2007 we really began to push, we had this technology, but we really didn't push it. Partnering with DuPont, we developed a product called Line-X Xtra, which is a color match system, so we could -- this beautiful green top, if you have a truck of that color, we can color match and put a green bed and -- Ivy Hartman: Wow! John Wesley: Again, it offers the same utility as a black bedliner, that will give you protection, great antiskid resistance, sound deadening, but in any color you want. Ivy Hartman: What's it -- now your franchisees, what are some of the benefits of becoming a franchisee with Line-X? John Wesley: I think generally speaking people join franchises to be their own boss, and Line-X is no exception to that, and again if you like to work with people, and you like to work in the automotive aftermarket, we believe we have an excellent opportunity there. Ivy Hartman: And you're international based also, talk about communication and levels of communication in doing business on international level. John Wesley: Well, what's interesting, a project that works in America is going to work anywhere. The difference with the exception of Canada, their national market is uniquely different, and that the truck bed phenomenon really is an North American phenomenon. There are trucks globally, but for the most part it's a North American phenomenon. That's where our utility outside the truck bed has really become important to us. We do have our most products in 28 countries, the Canadian market being our largest non-US market, and worked into expand, we think we'll move into 8 new master franchise agreements this year. We have 2 logged down, we think 6 will be sold and logged down by the end of this counter year. Ivy Hartman: Congratulation! John Wesley: Thank you very much. Ivy Hartman: Now do you meet any challenges with trying to incorporate an international component? John Wesley: Oh, business is so easy. Ivy Hartman: Yeah, I guess I'm asking - in case you've got advice? John Wesley: There are other challenges with language barriers, there are changes with unique applications, other changes in currency valuations. Ivy Hartman: Yeah, that's true. John Wesley: And we're seeing that now with the Canadian dollar, and so there are, they are not challenges that are not recoverable. Ivy Hartman: Okay. John Wesley: But you need to have your eyes open when you walk into anything, into franchising in general, but outside United States specifically, because you're dealing with laws that you're maybe not familiar with. You need to be smart about how you go outside the US. Ivy Hartman: Your objectives, we kind of covered it a little bit, your objectives for this year's show for Line-X, what are that you hope to accomplish? John Wesley: Well, we want to show the utility of our products, we want to showcase ReNew, and again, today at 2 o'clock we're going to be recognized for outstanding achievement in our category, and we want to showcase, continue to showcase colors, and we want to be able to answer questions. Ivy Hartman: Right. Jon Wesley: That the parts and accessory suppliers and consumers might have about our product. Ivy Hartman: Perfect, anything else you want to mention while you've got our attention? John Wesley: No, I appreciate you have me on again this year, and I hope I'm here to talk to you next year. Ivy Hartman: I hope so too, well, it wouldn't be a show without Line-X. John Wesley: We appreciate your work, thank you very much. Ivy Hartman: John, thanks for being here. Keep you right here on SBTV.com as we bring you all things automotive from the 2008 SEMA Show here in Las Vegas.