Jack Kay of Torklift International |
| Gordon White | Friday, 06 July, 2007 | |||
For many of us, turnbuckles are a last minute decision. We buy the truck and camper and then we have the dealer assemble our rigs. The irony is that it’s the turnbuckles that keep the truck camper from moving or possibly leaving our trucks. They’re essential gear, and should be on everyone’s radar screen before they put together their truck and camper. We talked to Jack Kay, Principal of Torklift International, about his company and the Torklift line of turnbuckles and gear. Jack: Well you have to go back to the family camping trips to Washington. Time spent lying out under the stars, listening to the birds, sitting around campfires, and having fun. The red blooded American camping experience. TCM: Do you go truck camping? Jack: Yes. We have a truck camper that doubles as our training vehicle. It’s on a big red 2005 crew cab dually Power Stroke Diesel Ford truck. My mother just got a little motor home and she’s after me to go camping with her. As for having a truck camper in my driveway, I think there’s a high likelihood. TCM: What’s the history behind Torklift? Jack: Torklift was started back in 1976 by my father, Jon Kay. I have pretty much grown up in the company along with my brother, Tony Kay. We’ve got just over fifty employees. It’s nice working with family and seeing my dad pretty much everyday. Now days he enjoys riding his Harley and coming in to share his latest and greatest ideas. I’m not spinning wrenches as much as I would like to be. I’m mostly working on new product development and working on the transition to our new Sales Manager, Jay Taylor. He’s a seasoned veteran in sales and a great guy. He has a lot of great ideas. Robin Harper, the Sales Manager Jay is replacing, spearheaded our sales and marketing resulting in tremendous growth. She’s found the love of her life and is getting married and moving out of state. TCM: How did your family start to manufacture turnbuckles for truck campers? Jack: We are RV people. We’ve had a camper in the family forever. And because we have a background in manufacturing, we’re always thinking. We’re not just building things and selling them. We use these products. We take things from here and there and come up with new ideas and try them out. If we can build a better mousetrap that suits us, then we have a winner. Making turnbuckles has been a natural outgrowth. TCM: What was Torklift’s first product? Jack: Torklift started with manufacturing trailer hitches for custom applications and for vehicles that were difficult to get set up. Our first nationally distributed product was the Super Hitch. TCM: Is Torklift 100% focused on the truck camper market? Jack: Yes, the truck camper line is definitely 99.9% of what we do. There are some products that we’re working on right now that are a little more universal to work with other RVs. The truck camper market is one that we’ve fallen into. We never sat down with a marketing plan and said this is where we’re going and here’s why. We kind of just went in that direction. A lot of our products have been developed by customer demand. And we get a lot of positive feedback. One lady was so thankful for our Fastgun turnbuckle because now she could actually help her husband, which was something she couldn’t do with her conventional turnbuckles because of her arthritis. That’s what turns us on. It’s not about selling great products and making some money. It’s about helping people. Our customers are not just our customers, but also our friends and neighbors. That’s one of the reasons why there’s a lifetime warranty on our products. We want our customers to feel just as good ten or even thirty years after their purchase. TCM: Do you see your son following in yours and your father’s footsteps? Jack: He’s worked with us for the last two summers. Being a dad, you would always like your son to follow along and continue the legacy. Then again, if it’s not in his heart, I would never want to see him to do something just because his dad did it. He’s fifteen and a half so he’s still at that age without a whole lot of direction. TCM: What might you be doing if you hadn’t worked at Torklift? Jack: I don’t really know. I remember writing an 8th grade assignment about what we were going to be when we got out of school. I knew then that this was what I was going to do. I wrote a report about Torklift and how someday I was going to run it. Low and behold, here I am. I always had a very clear and well-grounded insight into my future. And it’s been a blessing. TCM: It’s very rare that someone would know exactly what they wanted to do for a living in 8th grade. Jack: I find it kind of surprising that a lot of young people don’t have a clear direction. I’ve talked to seniors in high school who don’t have any direction. They’re getting ready to go to college and they still don’t have any idea of what they want to do. TCM: Let’s talk about your products. Why should someone choose Torklift products? Jack: We have a “family” philosophy that we carry through from our employees all the way to the end user who receives our products. We view our employees as a team and family. Our products are a reflection of what happens at our facility day in and day out. If you take the people out of Torklift, all you have is glass, concrete, and steel. That’s it. If one of our people has an issue with their family, others will offer to do this or that. If you want to hit the clock and collect a paycheck, you’re not Torklift material. We’re looking for thinkers and a group of people going somewhere in life. The end users that have our products can enjoy the quality and design of our products, but I’m not sure they realize our philosophy and why we are the way we are. We welcome this interview as an insight into the philosophy of Torklift. We are a legacy company. We’ve been around for thirty-one years and plan on being around for at least another thirty-one. Some companies are just focused on how much product they can get out the door, not necessarily return business. When an organization gets to that point, it’s a matter of time before that organization disappears, especially now with the power of the web. TCM: You have quite a few turnbuckles to choose from: Original Fastguns, Derringer Fastguns, Springloaded, Springloaded XL, and now Anchorguard. Jack: People are in different economies. Not everyone has a 2008 Ford F450 with a super deluxe camper and all the bells and whistles and our Fastgun turnbuckles. That’s the high end. The Fastgun turnbuckle is by far the quickest and easiest to adjust and use. It’s the Cadillac model. The other systems work well from a tiedown stand point but are not nearly as easy to adjust, hookup and disconnect. We want to have a system for every budget. A hunter with an older rig that he only uses a few months a year may not want to invest the kind of money as a full-time truck camper who wants the best. That’s why we have different options. A lot of times, customers are teaching themselves from web sites like yours. Those customers will call our dealers and give them part numbers. All of our systems are comparable in capacity. Time is such a commodity. People are so busy. When they finally get around to having some fun, the last thing they want to do is spin a bunch of wrenches messing with their turnbuckles. One of the things that my father likes to do is to peruse the web chat rooms and read what people want. He’s always thinking of fresh ideas to fill a need or solve a problem with this or that. TCM: Talk to us about your build quality. Jack: We have incorporated a lot of lean manufacturing technology. With lean manufacturing, you design production manufacturing cells so that it’s impossible to make a product wrong. Inspection becomes part of the normal manufacturing process and you can better control costs. It all comes down to the guy opening the box. Whether they’re an end user installing the product themselves or a dealer, I want them to open up the box and say, “Wow. This is what I paid for.” We build every product with safety in mind first. You have to maintain high quality standards and take care of people. You’re not going to call Torklift and have a phone tree to deal with. You’re going to get someone who cares about you. When a customer buys our product, it’s the beginning, not the end of the relationship, especially with our lifetime warranty. That’s the way we want it. TCM: What’s your vision for the future of Torklift? Jack: To be able to continue to instill our philosophy in every member of our team and to continue what we do right. We also need to continue to focus on building leaders for the future to support our level of growth. We’re in the process of acquiring six and a half acres for a new manufacturing facility. That’s a major undertaking. We’re very confident and excited to expand our overall capacity. There are several products that I can’t go into that we’ll be able to incorporate after our expansion. TCM: Will you give TCM the exclusive when these products debut? Jack: Yes. TCM: Where do you see the TC industry in ten years? Jack: It’s a tough call. We may be looking at dramatic changes in the price of fuel. Another factor is the different global economies. I think that the RV industry is going to continue to be popular, not just in the US, but in other countries around the world. And truck campers are such a versatile RV. They can be four-wheel drive and go where nobody else can go and you can use them year round. I don’t ever see them going away. Especially with Truck Camper Magazine and NATCOA and a lot of truck camper industry people getting together to blow the truck camper horn. For more information about Torklift, visit their web site at www.torklift.com . |
