SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2016
NAPIER
My history teacher in high school wasn’t a history teacher. He was a history teacher. If you had a history teacher, you know what the emphatic italics are all about. He wasn’t a social studies teacher who happened to teach history. He was trained in the humanities at an East Coast university that predated Canadian Confederation and there wasn’t a curriculum guide in print that was going to suppress his professorial instincts. He’d litter the chalkboard with superfluous dates and tangential events. After 60 minutes, your notebook looked like a 1980s New York subway car. I remember there was a particular aphorism that he asked us to copy – in Latin – on the top of every test, even before we wrote down our names: Mater artium necessitas. It means ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and it was his way of telling us to never give up, even when it seems hopeless. It speaks to the kind of resolve that separates those who look to others for solutions from those who look within. Roman Napieraj, founder of Napier Enterprises, is the latter individual. His story is the embodiment of that Latin maxim.
2
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 2016
3
NOVEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
By David MacDonald H ave you seen Malcolm Smith, Mert Lawwill and Steve McQueen in On Any Sunday (1971)? It’s a cult classic. It’s considered to be the first pure moto- cross movie ever made and it turned a generation of kids into dirt bike fanatics. When the 80s rolled around, some of those kids – by then teenagers and young adults – turned their passive passion into pastime. For Napieraj, the starting line was just a natural progression from the movie line. By the end of the decade, he was touring Southern Ontario with a motocross league. “A big part of motocross is camping on-site. Competitors, crew and spectators camp – it’s part of the lifestyle,” he explained. “Well, I’ve always had bad allergies and the closer to the ground I am, the worse it gets. One night, I decided I was going to do something about it. I headed to a Canadian Tire store, I bought some wooden beams, a tarp, and an air mattress and created my own tent in the back of my truck. It worked out so well that I kept putting this makeshift tent up weekend after weekend. People kept commenting on the setup and giving really positive feedback and then one night, it started to rain buckets. Every camper who could grabbed their tent and put it on their truck bed. I knew right there that I had something – a game changer. There was nothing like it on the market at the time.” “One night, I decided I was going to do something about it.” In 1990, Napier Enterprises was born and offered the first Sportz Truck Tent to consumers as one of the original companies to produce and market truck tents in North America. Seven short years later in 1997, General Motors launched Napier’s Truck Tents in the genuine GM Acces- sories program for Chevy and GMC Full-Size pickup trucks. Two years later, Ford USA launched Napier’s Truck Tents as a genuine Ford Accessory. Three years later, Nissan. Jeep Canada featured the Sportz SUV Tent in a national commercial in 2008.
4
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 2016
“From those motocross days to this very day, I’ve always held that listening is the key. When you listen to consum- ers, the standard of quality means something,” Napieraj said. “We’re able to keep creating innovative and unique products because we take the requests of our customers seriously. This year, we launched the Sportz Link, which expands the living space of a Napier Truck Tent and the Sportz Cove awning. This was all put together through consumer input.” “Social media has definitely changed the way we listen to our customers,” Napieraj said. #NapierNation and Facebook.com/Napieroutdoors have the undivided attention of Napieraj’s Marketing Manager, Mary Jackson. “These mediums give us feedback in a way that can’t be beat,” she explained. “The Napier Nation is always sharing photos and stories – essentially reviewing the products as a community – and it’s our job to encourage individuals to continue to share. That’s why it’s important to comment, like, and reply. Whether a customer is having problems or they absolutely love the product, we want to hear from them. You’ve got to show that you’re listening. We’re proud of Napier Nation and what it’s become and we have great plans for the online community in 2017.” “Napieroutdoors.com is going through a redesign,” Jackson continued. “The current design is from 2012 and online shoppers are looking for something more interac- tive. The Search option will be much more vehicle-spe- cific. We’re also including what we’re tentatively calling a Camping 101 page with, among other things, an essential checklist for truck tent campers. We definitely want to be a one-stop shop for your outdoor adventure needs. Napier Nation will also be featured on the main site. There will be a showcase and feature page where customer’s vehicle displays are profiled. We take pride in our customers and their stories and this, we feel, is the perfect way to show them how much we value their loyalty.”
outdoors so generations can enjoy. We support environ- mental causes such as Leave No Trace and Trees for the Future. Through our partnership with Trees for the Future, Napier plants a tree for every Backroadz product sold,” Napieraj proudly explained. “We support every initiative that our partners in the community spearhead.” “People kept commenting on the setup and giving really positive feedback and then one night, it started to rain buckets. Every camper who could grabbed their tent and put it on their truck bed. I knew right there that I had something – a game changer.” “It seems like we’re always doing local community events, like the YWCA Niagara Region’s No Fixed Address event to fight hidden homelessness. We work with these non-prof- its throughout Canada and the U.S. because they have an impact within communities and beyond,” Jackson added. Jackson explained that there isn’t a member of the Napier Outdoors family that isn’t an outdoors enthusiast. “Trees for the Future and causes like that are close to heart here. All ten of us love camping, well some of us glamping. When customers have very specific concerns, there is always someone here at the St. Catharines headquar- ters that has at least one weekend experience with the product in question. We believe personal experience to be one of our strongest assets.” Napieraj agreed. “There’s no doubt that we have several competitive advantages. The first and most significant is our experience because it informs decisions. Our patented floors are a great example of this. Our competi- tors aren’t there yet and based on consumer reviews, that floor makes all the difference. No more sleeping directly on the truck bed. Customers also love the detachable, standalone SUV tent. It’s versatile and, more importantly,
Social media platforms have also allowed Napieraj and his team to share with Napier Nation some of their values.
“Napier strongly believes in helping to conserve the great
5
NOVEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
6
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 2016
Napier is an OEM for the big car companies so you know what you’re buying is right for you.”
The Napier name is as recognizable in the camping and tailgating communities as Ford, GM, Nissan and Honda, who partnered with Napier Outdoors in 2009 to create a custom SUV tent for Honda models. Big-box retailers including Bass Pro Shops and Dick’s Sporting Goods proudly sell Napier Outdoors products while, Jackson explained, “strong partnerships with online vendors like AutoAnything and Amazon allow us to target even more of the market.” “When customers have very specific concerns, there is always someone here at the St. Catharines headquarters that has at least one weekend experience with the product in question. We believe personal experience to be one of our strongest assets.”
The Find a Retailer option at Napieroutdoors.com is excellent. The standard Address, City or Zip/Postal Code search format is supplemented by links to Online Retailers, Interna- tional Retailers, and Automotive Dealerships.
“We have retailers in North America, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, and Australia,” Napieraj explained. “Most of our business comes from the U.S. and that’s why we’ve invested so much in storage south of the border. We’ve got a warehouse in Buffalo that’s 10,000 square feet and another in Washington, D.C. that’s about 2,000 square feet that helps us service the
Southeast better. We’ve also got a warehouse in the Mississauga-Toronto area that’s 5,000 square feet.”
On moving forward, Napieraj would only say that he hopes consumers “continue to trust us because we will continue to listen. We’ve been going strong for 25 years and that commitment isn’t going to change.” “Our mission,” Napieraj added, “is to add convenience and flexibility to your outdoor adventure and to revolutionize your camping experience – and I think we accomplish that mission year after year.”
7
NOVEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
Napier
4 Nihan Drive, Unit 3 St. Catharines, ON L2N 1L1
800-567-2434
www.sportzbynapier.com
as spotlighted in the NOVEMBER 2016 issue of SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
www.spotlightonbusinessmagazine.com
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs