Polaris Adventures figured it might promote extra of its off-road automobiles if it might simply get individuals to attempt them within the wild. So a 12 months in the past, it bought a California city.
Not a really massive city. In February 2018, Polaris acquired the historic Glamis Seashore Retailer within the Southern California desert, together with 166 acres of property adjoining to the famed Glamis sand dunes, for an undisclosed sum. Although the shop and buildings are hardly a dot on the map, the spot identifies itself because the “Sand Toy Capital of the World” and is a gateway to one of many nation’s busiest and hottest off-road locations.
“This all began with the thought of how will we get individuals to expertise the good issues you are able to do with our product, or round our product,” stated Polaris Adventures director Grey Rentz. “We needed to ship the expertise to individuals who don’t match our conventional combine, particularly households and {couples}.”
Polaris Journey was launched 2½ years in the past by Polaris Industries, the Minnesota-based journey automobile tools large greatest identified for its snowmobiles, Ranger utility automobiles, RZR side-by-sides — collectively generally known as utility terrain automobiles, or UTVs — and three-wheeled road-ready Slingshots. (It additionally owns Indian Bike.)
Since then, Polaris Adventures has labored with 90 outfitters in 35 states to create quite a lot of using choices, from desert outings in Sedona and the Grand Canyon to forest rides in Montana and Maine to mountain passes in Colorado, Utah and California. Final 12 months, the corporate hosted 30,000 particular person “rides,” Rentz stated.
The off-road sports activities and utility-vehicle market has been one of many vivid spots within the energy sports activities trade, which is struggling to regain gross sales after the catastrophic drop-off that accompanied the 2008 monetary disaster. Whereas motorbike gross sales in 2018 have been about half of their 2008 ranges, UTV gross sales doubled over the identical interval, to 410,000 from about 200,000, in response to Bike Powersports Information.
In consequence, the once-dominant Polaris — with $6 billion in annual gross sales — now faces stiff competitors from BRP-owned CanAm and the motorbike firms pushing into the four-wheel market, principally Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha. A current gross sales survey by power-sports weblog Experience Now confirmed Polaris holding six of the highest 10 gross sales positions, however sharing an growing piece of the UTV pie with its rivals.
Ben Stone, proper, helps Daniel Noll placed on a security helmet earlier than he ventures out in a Polaris automobile.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Instances)
One answer: Attain out to millennials preferring expertise to possession, by making one-off adventures accessible to shoppers who can’t afford or don’t need their very own off-road automobiles. Which will lead to gross sales to impressed adventurers, and it undoubtedly leads to gross sales to the outfitters and tour leaders who want the automobiles to move them.
The Polaris Journey push has been a boon for outfitters equivalent to Ben Stone, proprietor of Completely happy Trails Rental. The charismatic entrepreneur, who attire in denim overalls and a cowboy hat and lives on the adjoining property together with his spouse, Keary, costs day-tripping adventurers $349 per automobile for a two-hour spin and $549 per automobile for a six-hour desert tour.
Lindsay Gibson had by no means been on a RZR or any comparable contraption when she and her husband, Trey, slipped on their helmets and goggles and climbed into the desert-ready automobile.
5 hours later, they’d accomplished a 50-mile “self-guided” loop of Johnson Valley sand and canyons, following an onboard GPS machine that took them deep into the desert, swung them previous a distant cafe for lunch, and returned them to their Completely happy Trails place to begin.
The Gibsons, who dwell in Hesperia, have been hooked.
“We had a lot enjoyable!” Lindsay Gibson stated. “The straightaways have been somewhat scary to me, however I liked the bumps! I might undoubtedly be up for doing it once more.”
Stone was capable of get brand-new Polaris RZRs by paying a program charge, relatively than leasing or shopping for. The goal is for him to extend his enterprise to the purpose the place he can afford a straight-up lease of Polaris automobiles.
Polaris in flip presents help in advertising and marketing, check-in, billing, insurance coverage and different software program, hoping to create a turnkey operation for keen outfitters. “And we now have income streams constructed into all of that,” Rentz stated.
Stone stated most of his purchasers discover him through the web, the place they could be scouring the realm searching for one thing offbeat or totally different.
Phrase of mouth and a robust suggestion from a pal drew Chad and Leigh Cook dinner to Completely happy Trails. They’d come from their residence in North Carolina to go to prolonged California household, and introduced their two daughters to Johnson Valley for a two-hour RZR trip.
They paid consideration whereas Stone gave them the protection discuss and defined the easy working system on the RZR XP 1000, which seems to be like a Mad Maxed Jeep and drives like a automotive. Quickly the household had placed on their helmets, buckled their security belts and roared off into the desert for a two-hour trip.
Ben Stone, proper, explains the options of an off-road automobile to Daniel Noll, left, Mike Huhn and Maura Sughrue.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Instances)
The group that adopted had opted for the full-day expertise, a trip that included a lunch cease at Slash X Ranch Cafe, a sand-blown establishment deep within the Barstow-area desert.
Lindsay and Trey Gibson have been in a single automobile, trailed by their Mission Viejo mates Jason Nash and Tammy Farfone. Over beers throughout a mid-ride lunch break on the cafe, all 4 stated they needed to do it once more. They most well-liked renting, even on the $549 fee, to proudly owning, as a result of proudly owning meant storing a automobile, transporting a automobile and being accountable for upkeep.
“The RZRs actually impressed me, with how simple they dealt with the tough terrain,” stated Nash, who operates a gun store in Westminster. “I believed it was good worth for cash. Now I’m desirous about taking my staff on the market for a visit, for a team-building occasion.”
Stone has already hosted a number of such occasions. Forty or extra staff of an automotive elements firm had a company retreat, full with RV lodging. His ranch has hosted a number of bachelor and bachelorette events. A neighborhood veterinarian held his annual Christmas “getaway” on Stone’s Polaris RZRs.
Polaris is happy.
“There is no such thing as a query that extra consciousness of those automobiles is sweet enterprise, however quite a lot of these individuals won’t ever personal one,” stated Polaris’ Rentz. “So it’s nice to have these butts in our seats and folks experiencing us at our greatest.”
