SmartEtailing and Harvest Retail Marketing have merged to offer richer service offerings and enhancements to the bicycle industry.
Ryan Atkinson, Founder and President of Harvest in Omaha, Nebraska, will lead the merged company as President beginning May 9, 2016. The company will retain the name SmartEtailing. Steve Flagg and Mary Henrickson, the founders and owners of Quality Bicycle Parts (QBP) remain majority owners of the new SmartEtailing.
“Harvest has an outstanding reputation of being dealer centric, service oriented and bicycle passionate,” said Flagg, chairman of QBP, which is the nation’s largest distributor of bicycles, parts and accessories to independent bicycle dealers. “Over the years, they have enhanced and developed SmartEtailing websites for dealers and they share many of the same customers as SmartEtailing. Ryan and his team have a reputation for innovation and professionalism and this will greatly benefit the customers for both companies. I am very confident that Ryan is the ideal person to lead this talented SmartEtailing team.”
The combination of Harvest and SmartEtailing broadens the scope of expertise that will result in a number of exciting initiatives and advancements for retailers and supply chain partners. The company will be headquartered in Boulder, Colorado in a new space planned for move-in this fall. Atkinson will split his time initially between the two enterprises with plans to merge operations over the next few months when several members of the Harvest staff relocate to Boulder.
“SmartEtailing has built an exceptional infrastructure and customer service network for independent bicycle retailers to succeed in a changing market,” shared Ryan Atkinson. “These two teams have the combined capability to significantly improve the quality of marketing for retailers, brands and suppliers. I look forward to working with SmartEtailing’s many customers and partners to identify opportunities to serve them even better.”
Both SmartEtailing and Harvest will continue to operate as separate entities in the short term as the teams work together to identify new unified processes. Customers will maintain the same contact persons they have at present and Atkinson assured that customers of both companies should expect continuity of service throughout the merger process.
The merger comes shortly after the announcement of the recent retirement of both founders Mark Graff and Barry Brenner. Graff will stay on as advisor and mentor for a few months once Atkinson assumes his new role.
Graff offered congratulations and added, “the addition of Harvest’s services to the talented SmartEtailing team, along with Ryan’s capable leadership, creates a super service-oriented organization poised to go well beyond what either firm/team, separately could hope to achieve.”
Additional merger details will be released over the coming months so customers and partners can navigate this change fluidly.
