Over the years, many foreign brands have come into the USA and sell their products through distributors. Recently, the well-known Australian brand Sykes made the bold move to buy Rhode Island-based Resolute, and integrate their product mix into one organization. Mark Nothnagel and Jeff Lawrence, the owners of Sykes/Resolute, talk about how the agreement came about, and where they plan to take their two companies.
What inspired you to acquire Resolute, and when did you take ownership?
Sykes has been selling boats in the USA through agents for many years and have built a base of very loyal customers in the USA. We were first introduced to the owner of Resolute in early 2018 and acquired the company in early 2019.
RESOLUTE has a proud reputation in rowing in the USA. RESOLUTE boats are known to be strong, durable, and built to go fast and that was what attracted us to the company. The more we learnt about the history of the company, the technology in the boats and the range of excellent products, the more we knew that we had to own this company. The product range and the technology/capability of RESOLUTE and SYKES boats complement each other perfectly!!!
Will you continue to manufacture Resolute in the USA?
Absolutely Yes!
We intend to continue with the manufacture of RESOLUTE boats in the USA and hope to soon be also manufacturing SYKES boats in the same facility.
Our strategy is that the RESOLUTE organization will become our regional production and service platform for customers in North, Central and South America for RESOLUTE and SYKES boats and all spare parts/ after sales service. We think that it is essential to think globally but act locally. Long, costly import dependent supply chains are simply not efficient or effective and that is the compelling reason that we will maintain a production and service platform in the USA.
Will there be changes in the Resolute equipment - riggers, seats, materials, other?
We want to be very careful when we make changes and, whilst we don't want to "try and fix something that isn't broken", the truth is that in recent years, innovation is what has been missing for RESOLUTE.
RESOLUTE customers will soon start seeing some very exciting innovations appearing in our boats, especially riggers and foot stretchers. The construction methods will change and some of the known shortcomings of RESOLUTE boats will be eliminated with help from the engineering team at SKYES and collaboration with some of our well-known global technology partners.
Any change we make will enhance the reputation for stiffness, strength, speed and durability that RESOLUTE is known for.
What about hull shapes or the model offerings?
In time there will definitely be new improved RESOLUTE hulls made in the USA. We must make sure that we evolve as our customer needs, materials technologies and manufacturing methods evolve.
Say more about Sykes, which is a big brand in Australia, but not as well known in the US.
SYKES has been building boats in Australia for 56 years and is by far the market leader in that region. Over the years SYKES has built a small but very loyal customer base in the USA too!!
SYKES is particularly well known for its small boats - the boats are well engineered, fast and very competitively priced. SYKES offers the full range of boats for every need across every category from Beginner to Elite. Athletes using SYKES boats have won many Olympic and World Championship medals.
Do you plan to integrate the two brands, or will they keep their separate identities? And will there be crossover of technologies and designs, or will they each keep their own?
Ideally we want to keep the two brands separate because each has its own discrete position in the market and they complement each other perfectly. Without doubt technology and parts will be shared but the two brands will retain their own identities, brand positioning and unique value proposition.
Soon after buying Resolute, the pandemic took over. How has it been managing a company from a continent away?
Under normal circumstances it is difficult to manage a business from 10,000 miles away, but this pandemic has been unbelievably tough for us, and unfortunately it has been more brutal for our loyal staff.
We recently hired Fabio Selvig to head up our customer-facing team, and hopefully we can soon travel to the USA to again contribute to the day-to-day activities.
We want to acknowledge our people and customers at RESOLUTE, and as we all gradually get back to normal after the pandemic we hope that we can draw on the support of our customers to again make RESOLUTE the #1 boat of choice in the USA - that is without doubt the best way to say "thank-you" to our people for their sacrifice and support over the past 15 months.
Is there anything else you'd like readers to know?
We are determined that together, RESOLUTE and SYKES will become the partner of choice for every American customer in rowing no matter what the need may be. If you'd like to learn more about our products, please visit Resolute, and Sykes.