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[Music]
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tocom hey MPN fans I'm Megan cek editor
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of motorcycle and Powers sports news and
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welcome to another episode of MPN power
00:00:28
players in December BRP celebrated 20
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years as an independent company so in
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recognition of that we're speaking today
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with Sandy skellion president of Power
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Sports and Marine for BRP Sandy it's so
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good to see you and thank you so much
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for chatting with us
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today thank you for having me
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Megan so to get started could you tell
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us a little bit about yourself and how
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you got started in this
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industry boy that started a long time
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ago actually uh you know I was I feel
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like I was born on a snowmobile um my
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father had a
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1968 Moto key and uh for the family
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obviously and with the four brothers I
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had I ended up doing the mechanic on
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that snowmobile more than I was actually
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riding it so yeah I started as a uh as a
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DSM uh for for bombardi back at the back
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at back in the time and uh responsible
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for Northeastern Quebec Network I would
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say and I got to admit uh I would have
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probably worked for free for the first
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year you know bombardi is a big name was
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a big name still is today in Quebec and
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working for this
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multinational and having to deal with
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snowmobiles and the Mages and you know
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selling this to the dealers for me was
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just a super privileged so uh obviously
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that's how I started my career and my
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career and then u i would say almost
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Clockwork three years uh at a time uh
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worked my way up uh changed rules uh um
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you know and uh obviously touched a lot
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of things from sales distribution
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marketing product development and so on
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up to now being in charge of both Power
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Sports and Marine so it was uh it's been
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quite all
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right yeah that sounds like it actually
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So speaking of rides you said you were
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basically like born on a snowmobile um
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are you still riding snowmobiles are you
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riding anything
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else oh I've got pretty much all the
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products that we could offer I still
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ride the deep snow snow building up
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north in Quebec and uh so this is uh
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probably if I had to choose one of my
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favorite products in all the portfol we
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have just because it's the you know I've
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been born on a Snowville that would be
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the product
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obviously nice yeah snowmobiles are a
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completely foreign concept to me being
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down in the Deep South where I am I
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don't think we have ever gotten more
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than like two inches of snow down here
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so I can't even imagine but it sounds so
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much
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fun it is it is and this industry has
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been you know uh evolving so much
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technology wise uh you know from from
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the 70s to the 80s of to the '90s and
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then big transformation in the 2000 in
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terms of the platforms themselves and
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the engine the technology around
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injection and so on and last year we've
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as you know we launched the first
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electric snowmobile that has hit the
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market this winter so looking at the
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evolution of that industry is just
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amazing so
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uh obviously yeah and the I would say in
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terms of uh the passion that exists and
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our customers also our dealers actually
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uh it's it's it's it's this uh yellow
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blood flowing in our veins U which is a
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little bit of the culture of BRP today
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right it's uh and I and I and I tell the
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story a lot but you know this winning
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attitude we have at BRP which relate to
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the culture and that yellow blood it's a
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you know this uh uh winning on Sunday on
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races and selling on Monday attitude
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that's always been there for us and that
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comes from the snowmill business it
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obviously applied to all the other
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products L we have in our portfolio
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today but uh that's uh that's a legacy
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or the DNA that actually drives us every
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morning very nice so okay so you've
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spoken about how the industry is
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evolving and you know BRP seems to be
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evolving too you recently went through
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an organizational change um and you've
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now been named the president of the
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power sports and Marine Group so what
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exactly is changing about your job and
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what does this recent reorganization
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spell for brp's future at
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large you know uh Marine is the new
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division under me uh today and U as you
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probably are aware uh you know a couple
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years ago when we decide to launch the
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buy built and transform program for
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Marines so the first step was the
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acquisition of the manitu brand the
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Aluma craft and then the quintrex brand
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in Australia Second Step was is the the
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the build right this is uh put our own
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DNA in the boats themselves uh and uh
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because obviously that takes time so
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it's a typically a 30 to 36 month cycle
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of developing a brand new platform brand
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new product which we launched the new
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manitu uh last year actually uh and the
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timing of this this is like uh for any
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either new business or initiative or
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smaller business you wanna you want to
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isolate the business so where it can
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actually uh has more freedom to you know
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to change and to and and and to build to
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a certain maturity but now in the
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transform in the transformed phase it is
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time now that we put that business
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into let's call it the bigger machine
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right the which we have at Power Sports
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so in terms of the uh uh the the product
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cycle and the maturity of the business
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the time was just perfect for us to to
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to take on uh a a more focused approach
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in bringing the Marine business at the
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next level
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obviously um now that being said in the
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last spring we were a bit late in
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delivering the boats to the market the
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market was not um uh the best year for
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the Marine business so it uh it wasn't I
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would say the best launch of manitu uh
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so I guess the timing of all this with
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kind of the course correction we wanted
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to or we need to do as we speak to make
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sure we come out of this uh uh cycle
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stronger for next fall was perfectly the
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right timing for us to take that on and
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at the same time in terms of my
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responsibilities I used to have the
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manufacturing for power sports but for
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the same reason of Focus now the Marine
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manufacturing operations are under the
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same individual now on the management
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Committee of our CEO so that provides a
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focus on the man manufacturing side and
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an enhanced Focus as well on the
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commercial side so that's the reason or
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those are the reasons behind the
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change and
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and just to add on this Megan it's uh
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the Marine business for BRP is a is a is
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a huge growth Vector right the the ORV
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business is the one which has the most
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momentum as we speak um but the Marine
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business we're still relatively small to
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the size of the industry we're going
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after a$ 36 billion do industry this is
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actually bigger than power sports right
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um so it is uh it is is key for us to to
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make sure that we uh we put that
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business on track and then we we we go
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for the number one position like uh we
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are in most of our brands on the
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Powersport
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side always a good goal to strive for
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absolutely as many of you know taking
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physical inventory is something you do
00:08:44
once maybe twice a year and sometimes
00:08:47
you avoid it all together with large
00:08:49
quantities of parts accessories
00:08:51
chemicals tires and various other
00:08:53
merchandise throughout your store it's
00:08:55
not a simple task to complete there is a
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00:08:59
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00:09:04
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00:09:19
dealership RFID scanners do not require
00:09:22
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the only dealer management system in the
00:09:40
power sports industry building the
00:09:42
technology your dealership
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needs so you know you've had this really
00:09:52
long career here at BRP changes are a
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foot but kind of stepping back looking
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at at the last 30 years or so what have
00:10:02
been some of your greatest
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accomplishments with BRP at this during
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that
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time listen there's at uh there's at
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least two I would want to call out
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obviously 30 years is long but we don't
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have that much time on this podcast so
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I'll choose two of them the first one I
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would say I'm mostly proud of uh and it
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all started in 2007 when I was in charge
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of the P Anda business is this notion of
00:10:31
uh um accessorization right and how do
00:10:35
we
00:10:36
create this link between without playing
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with words though because we have the
00:10:41
link accessories but this link between
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when we develop a new
00:10:45
platform how do we make this new
00:10:48
platform much better integrated with the
00:10:51
accessories that come with it right uh
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and back then in 2007 it was a it was a
00:10:58
very small business for us uh it was in
00:11:00
tens of billions of dollars the
00:11:02
accessory business and portfolio was
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super small and today it's half a
00:11:07
billion dollars right so and when you
00:11:09
look at the um at the portfolio of
00:11:14
accessories uh The Innovation we brought
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with the link system that's the quick
00:11:19
attach system that we have uh the
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extension of usage of all of our
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products through different accessories
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whether it's through plows it'ss you
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know the winterization of ATV side by
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sides and how we how we have our U uh
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our caros on snowmobile in very rough
00:11:40
environments and I mean to me this is a
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this is a a big turnaround and and to be
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honest at the time in 2007 the
00:11:49
inspiration came a little bit from Hardy
00:11:50
Davidson right this idea of not having
00:11:53
one vehicle being the
00:11:54
same um uh on on on off-road or on or
00:11:59
whatever um and so this is at the point
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where we invested significantly in
00:12:06
accessory engineering convince the
00:12:08
engineering unit side of the business to
00:12:12
actually design for accessorization this
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was a concept at BRP that lasted for
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years and today we keep uh we keep
00:12:21
stepping up in terms of accessory
00:12:23
integration in every new platform we
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bring to the market and has that has a
00:12:27
lot of value for our customers and our
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dealers as well obviously uh with quick
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attach systems not everything coming
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from the factory but also uh giving the
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opportunity for our dealers to actually
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upsell the accessories and so on and so
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forth right so that to me is the first
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one um and the second one as a noem and
00:12:48
Power Sports this transformation on not
00:12:51
being a wholesale driven organization
00:12:53
but being a retail driven organization
00:12:56
which when I first started this role uh
00:13:00
at Global retail and services in
00:13:03
2016 that was for me a change of mindset
00:13:06
as well where we uh uh this is not about
00:13:10
the wholesale but this is about the lead
00:13:12
generation how our dealers are able to
00:13:15
convert these leads into retailer sales
00:13:17
and how we support them with all kinds
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of tools uh so that at the end of the
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day um uh you know what we care is about
00:13:26
the retail side not the wholesale side
00:13:28
so for us internally it might sound
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obvious for some of you but uh that was
00:13:33
a big transformation
00:13:37
internally very good yeah that's all
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excellent to hear there so you know
00:13:43
again kind of looking you know at the
00:13:46
big picture here what would you say is
00:13:48
your favorite part about working in the
00:13:50
power sports
00:13:52
industry I mean obviously the the the
00:13:55
product itself is you know what's it we
00:13:58
we remain to today A Product Company
00:14:01
right uh we always said BRP product is
00:14:04
King and this is a little bit of our DNA
00:14:07
uh The
00:14:08
Innovation and whatever we do we don't
00:14:11
like to do things like the others uh uh
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we we we challenge ourselves on on new
00:14:18
architectures uh for me the uh obviously
00:14:21
the uh the three- whe business is a good
00:14:25
example of that didn't exist before we
00:14:27
brought that to the Market innovating
00:14:30
with uh uh new categories uh like spark
00:14:34
for watercraft actually you know after
00:14:38
so many years of a industry downturn in
00:14:40
watercraft after the spark actually
00:14:43
again without playing with words sparked
00:14:45
the industry and that industry at that
00:14:48
point from the launch of that platform
00:14:50
started growing again the latest one the
00:14:53
Maverick R which is a uh for me this is
00:14:57
a engineering Marvel with a DCT
00:15:00
transmission 240 horsepower for one
00:15:04
liter Nobody Does that not even in the
00:15:07
automobile industry so for me what what
00:15:10
drives us at at BRP is the product of
00:15:13
innovation obviously is the probably the
00:15:15
number one priority but it's also our
00:15:18
pride right it's h again back to winning
00:15:21
on Sunday and selling on Monday this
00:15:24
this winning attitude uh of being the
00:15:27
best out there in terms of performance
00:15:29
whether it's for Speed whether it's for
00:15:32
suspension whether it's for utility
00:15:35
purposes you uh there there's always a
00:15:38
way to measure ourselves in terms of
00:15:39
performance and and we just love
00:15:43
that absolutely I mean just the
00:15:46
way the speed with which technology has
00:15:49
been changing the last few years is
00:15:52
incredible and you look back at vehicle
00:15:55
models just I don't know five six years
00:15:58
ago and see the changes from then to now
00:16:00
is is absolutely incredible I I love to
00:16:02
see
00:16:04
it so now you've had this long career in
00:16:08
power sports um but what advice would
00:16:11
you have for perhaps people who are new
00:16:14
to the power sports industry and looking
00:16:16
to dig deeper into
00:16:19
it I mean there's not a lot of Industry
00:16:22
I know obviously a little bit biased
00:16:25
I've been 30 years within this this
00:16:27
industry but
00:16:29
again somebody looking at our industry I
00:16:33
don't think nobody can realize the level
00:16:36
of passion that exists through the whole
00:16:39
chain right from employees from our
00:16:43
dealers that are passionate about the
00:16:45
the business the products and the
00:16:46
industry itself and acting in their
00:16:49
communities and but also our customers I
00:16:52
mean we have people with tattoos of our
00:16:54
brand I mean how many yeah other brands
00:16:57
in other IND Industries can you actually
00:17:00
uh see this so you know somebody that
00:17:03
comes in our industry I would I would I
00:17:05
would tell them brace yourself you're in
00:17:08
for quite a ride uh but
00:17:11
also um you know it's it is important
00:17:14
that we always remain close to our
00:17:17
stakeholders and those are you know
00:17:19
those being obviously our suppliers but
00:17:21
our dealers our network is probably uh
00:17:25
other than Our Brands one of the biggest
00:17:27
assets we have in our hands uh but also
00:17:31
being close to what the customer wants
00:17:34
while being able to innovate and bring
00:17:36
new needs in the market it's uh it's
00:17:39
quite a it's quite an interesting
00:17:42
business to be in and obviously at BRP
00:17:44
on top of it we like to win so um and
00:17:48
and what's really interesting and what
00:17:50
we've lived and what we've learned
00:17:52
during Co is is you know it's U the
00:17:56
number of new entrance in our business
00:17:59
um we we we were all a little bit
00:18:02
surprised right with the station
00:18:05
phenomenon nobody's traveling anymore
00:18:08
people are moving out of the city uh and
00:18:11
suddenly they need an ATV they need a
00:18:14
side by side they need a snowmobile
00:18:16
because they're not in the Sydney
00:18:18
anymore uh so this actually opened our
00:18:20
eyes on on on you know on on on a on a
00:18:26
customer base that uh is actually wider
00:18:29
than we originally thought you know the
00:18:32
power sports industry is like uh what is
00:18:34
it
00:18:35
05% of the general population that
00:18:38
actually owns a power sports or buys a
00:18:40
power sports unit in the
00:18:41
year
00:18:43
um doubling this is only 1% of the
00:18:47
population and this is actually doubling
00:18:49
our our our opportunity so we got a
00:18:51
little bit of a taste of this during
00:18:54
covid um which for us brings a a new
00:18:58
dimension and how we Market our products
00:19:00
who do we target what are you know who
00:19:03
do we actually compete with is it our
00:19:06
OEM competitors or it's actually the
00:19:08
travel industry as an example right so
00:19:10
it opens a completely new side of the
00:19:13
business so we welcome new entrance in
00:19:17
our business obviously as a customer but
00:19:20
also as far our employees to keep our
00:19:22
eyes open on on on on this new uh I
00:19:26
would say uh this new set of
00:19:31
opportunities well speaking of New
00:19:34
Opportunities and looking ahead to the
00:19:36
Future um what do you look forward to
00:19:40
personally professionally or even as an
00:19:42
industry in the next few
00:19:45
years well we're we're at uh I would say
00:19:48
a crossroad on on a couple of subjects
00:19:51
first off I think every OEM is in the
00:19:54
same boat in terms of the digital
00:19:56
transformation right how we set up
00:19:59
ourselves uh so that uh uh we're able to
00:20:03
answer the customer you know the not
00:20:07
only the Digital customer expectations
00:20:09
but also the physical one so how do we
00:20:11
bring these two worlds
00:20:13
together uh is certainly a challenge but
00:20:16
all but also a big opportunity and and
00:20:19
this I'm looking forward to you know
00:20:22
it's we're just at the beginning of this
00:20:25
uh in terms of our investments our
00:20:26
initiatives and so on so
00:20:28
we're going to see a lot coming from
00:20:30
this industry in terms of the digital
00:20:33
transformation but the other one that is
00:20:35
an obvious one uh is the EV
00:20:38
transformation how is that going to play
00:20:41
out right um at the same time it's a
00:20:44
it's a big opportunity for BRP because
00:20:48
technology technology wise uh it's it's
00:20:52
everybody's at the starts at the same
00:20:54
base right it's a and I'll give the
00:20:56
example of motorcycle
00:20:58
right re-entering the two- wheel
00:21:01
business with a with a combustion engine
00:21:04
uh technology would have been you know
00:21:09
uh a challenge because obviously our
00:21:12
competitors have been doing that for for
00:21:14
quite a while but doing it on the EV
00:21:17
technology is a completely different
00:21:19
game and we believe uh that we have the
00:21:23
right approach uh we chose to do this
00:21:26
much more vertically than many of our
00:21:29
competitors uh you know in an evev
00:21:31
there's the charger the the inverter the
00:21:33
battery the motor um and we see you know
00:21:38
a a a we see all sorts of combination of
00:21:43
of how oems are approaching this in
00:21:45
terms of vertically integration or not
00:21:49
and um so as we launch or did the soft
00:21:53
launch on the two- whe business a couple
00:21:56
of years ago uh Buy by the way our first
00:21:59
motorcycle are going to be in production
00:22:01
at the end of this year and uh and we
00:22:05
believe that we have the right recipe to
00:22:07
be the leader in Eevee in power sports
00:22:10
as we go on because of our choices we
00:22:12
made three years ago and how we approach
00:22:14
this technology so this is a very
00:22:16
exciting
00:22:18
transformation that being said um um you
00:22:21
know I don't believe that everything is
00:22:23
going to convert to EV uh given the
00:22:27
power density that is required and the
00:22:29
range that is required in certain of our
00:22:32
vehicles whether it's utility whether
00:22:33
it's for deep snow riding in the
00:22:36
mountains there will be combustion
00:22:38
engines for a long time still today at
00:22:42
least with the existing technology that
00:22:44
you know that comes from uh the EV world
00:22:48
uh but we need to learn from that
00:22:50
business from the EV world we need to
00:22:52
understand how how this is going to
00:22:54
appeal to a new crowd of customers as
00:22:57
well so there's there's going to be a
00:22:59
lot of learning into this but we believe
00:23:01
we're we're we're we're set for a for a
00:23:05
for a very interesting ride in that
00:23:09
aspect absolutely definitely some
00:23:11
exciting times ahead for both BRP and
00:23:14
the industry as a whole Sandy thank you
00:23:17
so much for taking the time to talk with
00:23:19
us
00:23:20
today thank you Megan it's a
00:23:23
pleasure and thank you for watching this
00:23:25
episode of Power Players be sure to
00:23:27
check out RP's product lines for ways to
00:23:29
have fun on snow water asphalt and dirt
00:23:32
and stay tuned to MPN for more
00:23:34
motorcycle and Powersports news we'll
00:23:36
see you next time
