Samantha Taylor: Welcome to the Amigo CartCast, the podcast where we roll through the ins and outs of material handling with Amigo carts. I’m your host, Samantha Taylor, here with my co-host Scott Chappell, and we’re on a mission to find a better way for material handling.

Scott Chappell: Thank you, Samantha. Each episode will explore the innovative features, success stories and the endless possibilities that Amigo material handling carts bring to the table. Let’s roll into a world of efficiency, innovation and endless possibilities. This is the Amigo CartCast.

Samantha Taylor: Hello and welcome to another episode! In this one we’re going to reverse what we typically do. Typically, we end each episode with a story. In this one, we’re going to start with a story! So I’m Samantha, your host, along with my co-host, Scott, to share a story on Thule.

Scott Chappell: Hello, Samantha.

Samantha Taylor: For those who don’t know, Thule is a Swedish company. They are known as the luxury cart racks. Very fancy for your outdoorsy folks. They also make strollers.

Scott Chappell: Tents, tents that go on top of cars.

Samantha Taylor: Yeah, it’s pretty snazzy, actually.

Scott Chappell: It’s pretty cool, I saw on the website.

Samantha Taylor: I do want to let our listeners know, too, that we have some additional information specifically on the Thule customer and how we went to market with them. If anyone is interested in reading the blog, there’s a post on our website. You can find it at myamigo.com/blog. There’s this article as well as many others on our industrial units in different facilities, so feel free to take a look at that.

Scott Chappell: So when you mention Thule, I had the pleasure of going to their facility in Connecticut and we had met them originally at a trade show and I don’t know if it was Modex in Atlanta or ProMat in Chicago. One of those two major shows. And they were basically looking for another way to move stuff. When I say stuff, I mean people and products.

Scott Chappell: So after the show, we set up a demonstration up on the East Coast and we took some products out there. We did our Amigo Roadshow, which we’ve talked about in previous episodes. And at that demonstration, we were able to see how they were currently using manual pushcarts in that 200,000 square foot facility and lots of boxes, big boxes, small boxes, a lot of boxes.

Scott Chappell: So with that being said, like our typical road show is we pulled our products out, we took them inside. We let the folks at Thule use them, kind of get used to them, and then they kind of told us what they wanted to do.

Samantha Taylor: So when you originally met the folks at the trade show from Thule, did you know what Thule was?

Scott Chappell: I know the name because it’s, I mean, they make bike racks, they make the carriers on top of your roof. I mean, you see them, especially in Michigan, you know, the Great Lakes State… snow, people put their skis in them. So you would see T-H-U-L-E, Thule. You see that on top. So it was interesting for me because, you know, it’s just kind of a neat company that is well known that is interested in our product.

Samantha Taylor: Yeah, I think that’s very cool. One of my favorite things about a job in sales is all the cool people you get to meet and sometimes you might not, you know, notice where they’re at all the time. And like you said, they’re everywhere on car racks and the luxury of car racks

Scott Chappell: Oh my gosh, you betcha.

Samantha Taylor: The Louis Vuitton.

Scott Chappell: Good analogy.

Samantha Taylor: Yeah. You know, I have to be able to relate to things.

Scott Chappell: I’m sure.

Samantha Taylor: It’s just fun to hear. You might not know of an application or what they’re using it for. And then you start to learn from the individuals, what they’re moving, and how we can help improve efficiencies. So it’s very cool to hear their story and what they’re doing and whatever their mission is and how we can fit into it.

Samantha Taylor: So when you were in their facility, you said it was over 200,000 square feet. They were using primarily manual pushcarts to move a variety of sizes of boxes, I guess, after they demoed and tried our product. What was the outcome?

Scott Chappell: So, I guess I better step back a minute and that is we never know what people are going to want us to do, right? I mean, we might go in there and they might want to move trash. They might want to move cardboard. It might be for a maintenance person. So when we got there and looked at their facility, they basically said, we’re using these wired– wheeled wired carts.

Scott Chappell: They’re normally like eighteen inches wide by sixty inches long and could be like five, six feet tall. That’s how they’re doing it by hand. Well, after we did the demonstration with them and they saw our… just happened to be our Dex Pro+, that not only moves a person but also has a detachable trailer. They were very interested in taking our Dex Pro+ trailer and attaching the wired shelved carts that they had taken the wheels off and mounting that onto our trailer.

Scott Chappell: So they we basically did like a two for one. They took our trailer and mounted what they were currently doing. Now, a couple of different reasons. This is what I found out after the fact. One was honestly, they liked the shelves that they had on their carts. They had three or four shelves and that’s what they’re loading stuff up on.

Scott Chappell: The other is they loved our casters compared to the casters and those less expensive carts. So they were actually not only using our powered decks, pro plus base to pull them around, but they were actually pushing those carts around manually as well.

Samantha Taylor: We weren’t going in– You didn’t know, first of all, what they were… but they saw the product, got the wheels turning. We’re not changing. They’re not changing how they’re currently maybe doing things. We’re just making it more efficient. So they’re using the same carts. They’re just no longer pushing those heavy manual carts around. We’re able to provide an easier solution to get the job done a little bit more effectively.

Samantha Taylor: So that’s pretty cool.

Scott Chappell: Yeah, it was. It was very nice. And we didn’t know. And obviously in the world of sales, everybody, if you’re in sales, you know, you want to try to be everything to everybody. We don’t know that going in. We were just fortunate in this case that the folks that we met at Thule is a trade show. They know their warehouse better than anybody.

Scott Chappell: So they know if there’s an efficiency issue, they know if there’s an employee issue as far as not enjoying what they do. I will say, since we put these multiple units in there, I’ve been back because we we like to go back and see our customers and just make sure everything’s working properly. But now these carts that they have, the trailers that they have of ours, they use them in a lot of different things.

Scott Chappell: So now, not only from day one, they want to do it a certain way. Now they’re using them for many, many other items as well, applications, that is.

Samantha Taylor: So, Scott, to your point, if I mean, it’s really cool that they were able to use their own carts to put on top of our trailers, they kind of customize their own carts, we’ll say their own trailers. But if they didn’t have that, can you share what maybe we’d be able to do for them?

Scott Chappell: Most definitely. So in Thule’s application, once we unloaded everything and went inside to show them what we’re able to do, there was a general idea that they move all kinds of boxes, and so it was small boxes, could be long boxes, so they needed shelves. Now we’re able to create shelves in our trailers, but their idea was to utilize what they currently had, which we like people to do it.

Scott Chappell: It’s not all about us making products for you. If you’ve got products to use, let’s go ahead and use them. So Thule had some existing wire carts that they were using with wheels on them. They took the wheels off and then we mounted them to our base. Our base is a little heavier duty. The casters are a little stronger, a little easier to roll and come to find out.

Samantha Taylor: I just picture like Thule with all sorts of like long ski racks and then a little backpack and then whatever else next to these carts… on these carts.

Scott Chappell: I agree.

Samantha Taylor: We hope you enjoyed today’s episode of a deeper dive into one of our customers. We have additional information and case studies with more customers on our website. Feel free to visit these case studies along with other posts at myamigo.com/industrial. And until next time.

Scott Chappell: Keep it rolling.

Samantha Taylor: And that wraps up another episode of The Amigo CarCast. We hope you enjoy this exploration into finding a better way for material handling with Amigo carts. Be sure to subscribe as well as go to myamigo.com/podcast to see pictures and videos mentioned in today’s episode.

Scott Chappell: Thank you for tuning in. And until next time, keep rolling with Amigo.

Samantha Taylor: Until next time.

Scott Chappell: Keep it rolling.

Samantha Taylor: Keep it rolling.