In this keynote-style presentation, Arrowhead CEO Bill Canady delivers a comprehensive business update to suppliers and partners. He opens with a personal anecdote about the energy of the audience, then outlines Arrowhead’s history from its 1968 founding in Blaine, Minnesota, through organic growth, the 2000s deal activity, and the pivotal partnership with private‑equity firm Genstar that helped scale the company to roughly $1.3 billion in revenue and 2,600 employees. Canady explains the impact of the pandemic boom and subsequent market contraction, emphasizing that the Genstar partnership and strong leadership have left Arrowhead in its strongest financial position ever. He details the product portfolio—about three‑quarters of a million parts ranging from hard parts (bearings, axles) to rider gear (helmets, boots)—and notes that 76 % of revenue comes from hard parts, a recurring‑revenue engine with ~10 % margin. The business is organized into four primary markets (powersports, outdoor power equipment, rotating electric, golf) and three operating segments (powersports, engineered products, Europe/BEER). Canady shares growth ambitions: a clear path to $2 billion in revenue within three years, backed by Genstar’s financial support and the existing team. He stresses that supplier partnerships are about co‑design and product development, not just price, and invites attendees to a 2 pm Q&A and product‑display area. The talk concludes with a call for partners to join Arrowhead on its “rocket‑ship” growth journey.
Chapters
All right, good morning everyone. So before I get kicked off, I thought we'd show you a little video. Maybe there's a little bit of a— All right, good morning everyone. All right, what an exciting video. It really, I think, shows just the breadth and depth of what Arrowhead does. But I tell you, it's not as exciting as it was for me yesterday when I walked in and I came down that hallway and saw the thousands of you out there. Man, that got my heart pumping. Wow. The chills and things that I felt when I look forward to where we are and where we're going is unbelievable. I'm Bill Canady. I'm the CEO of Arrowhead, and I've been in this role for just over a year now, and it has been one of the most rewarding, outstanding journeys that I've had in my career. So I thought we'd start out with and just tell you a little bit about the Arrowhead journey. If you look back to 1968, we were founded in Blaine, Minnesota, and over the next 20 years or so, we primarily grew organically. Then as we got into the 2000s, we started doing a lot of deals and got ourselves up to the mid-$200 million. We joined forces with Arrowhead. Oops, sorry. We joined forces with Genstar, and from that, we quickly got ourselves to just over a billion dollars, about a billion three. Now we went through the same thing that everyone else went through out there, and the pandemic had an unusual effect on us. Our business boomed. In fact, the entire market boomed. But, you know, trees don't grow to the sky. And what happened was that had to come back to earth, right? The business contracted, the market contracted. But because of the partnership that we had with Genstar, because of the tremendous leadership team we've had, today Arrowhead is in financial strength stronger than it's ever been in its entire history. Today it is poised to grow in a way that's never grown before. And it's really through partnering with folks like yourself. So let's talk about what makes up Arrowhead today, right? It's a collection of about 3/4 of a million parts, all the way from hard parts, things like bearings, axles, all the way over to rider gear. So helmets, vests, boots, chaps, all the sort of really cool things with that. There's about $1.3 billion revenue, as I said before. Of that, about 76% is hard parts. Now the thing That's exciting about hard parts is that's the recurring revenue stream. When those break on that motorcycle, when that bearing goes out, if the rider is going to continue, they have to replace that part. That's where the money's at. That's where the heart of our business is. About 76% of our business comes from that. It's an exciting point— place to be. We earn about 10% off of that, and we're made up of just over 2,600 associates. So exciting business, and it's really taking off. So what are the areas that we focus into? There's 4 main ones. So we have powersports, so motorcycles, ATVs, things like that. That's about 65% of our business. We do outdoor power equipment. That's actually where the heart of the business kind of started out as, as Arrowhead. That's around 19% of the sales. Rotating electric is next. That's the big trucks that you see on the road. That's things like starters and alternators. And then finally, we have a terrific golf business. So And we're in the golf business, so not so much the golf courses, but those neighborhoods. So if you ever go down to The Villages and see all those great folks whipping around, there's a high probability it's coming through one of our, one of our groups there. So that's where our, how our channels are. And then the way we divide that business is into 3 segments. So the first is powersports. It's about a $600 million business located out west, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Led by a terrific guy. His name is Travis, and Travis has just taken this business to new heights. All right, it is primarily focused around serving riders, professional riders out there. Secondly, engineered products. As I said earlier, that was the heart of the business where it was founded at, and that's things like the hard parts that we talked about, really the core of the business. And finally is Europe. Europe is made up of both rider gear As well as the outdoor power equipment, rotating electric, things like that. We do that mainly under BEER, and that one's about $300 million. So this is how we go to market out across. You can see our brands. Again, the leader in the industry, one of the largest in the world at doing it. So as I said earlier, we're about $1.3 billion today, right? Where are we going? We have clear line of sight today to $2 billion in the next 3 years. We have the financial wherewithal, we have the support of Genstar, and we have the team to get ourselves there. And we're inviting you to take this journey with us. And for sure, we want a better price, right? I don't think I've ever been to a supplier conference where we're not, not looking for a better price. But that's not the point of what we're trying to accomplish here. It's really more around the partnership. It's designing and developing the products that we need if we're going to go win. We can't win without you. And if you're going to grow your business today, I don't think you can do better than what you have with Arrowhead. It is an absolute rocket ship. It's well-grounded, it's financially strong, and it is growing in a way that it's never grown before. And we invite you to take that journey with us. So later on today around 2 o'clock, we're going to be just over on this side. They're going to put a wall up. We'll be there. And during that, you not only get to hear from me very briefly again, but you'll get to hear from my team. And you'll do a Q&A session. We, we invite you to join it. We invite you to come to that. I think you're going to learn a lot with it. Across the hall over here is our, our area where you can come and touch and look at the products. It's amazing, from the tires to the full-body suits to the helmets. It is an exciting and interesting business, and I hope you'll take the journey with us. So thank you all. Have a great day.
