In May 2008, Jay Allen, a former financial analyst for a medical devices manufacturer, jumped headfirst into the outdoor specialty business with his purchase of Northern Lights Trading Co. in Bozeman, MT. The purchase included both the Northern Lights store as well as The Barn in the city. Since then, Allen has acquired Pipestone Mountaineering in Missoula, MT, and Barrel Mountaineering, also in Bozeman.


Allen had no plans to consolidate the outdoor specialty space in Montana, but has so far enjoyed his experience in outdoor retailing. “It's just a fun atmosphere,” said Allen in an interview with The B.O.S.S. Report. “It doesn't feel like work when your customers are coming in to buy gear so they can go out and have fun.”


Allen and his wife, Susan, began looking into running their own business a few years ago and eventually decided to link their love of the outdoors to their livelihoods. Both grew up in Kansas. In his younger days, Jay and his family would drive to Colorado to ski a few times a year. His outdoor pursuits were limited during the late eighties, when he spent much of this time on the gridiron field as an offensive lineman for The University of Kansas while pursuing a business degree.  While later working a few months in Ireland, those outdoor interests were rekindled after he took Susan skiing in Andorra in the Pyrenees Mountains.


“She'd never been skiing before and we just got the bug and from then on we just basically took all our vacations in the mountains. Then one year we said, 'Why don’t we take a trip in the summer?,' and we realized it's even better in the summer!,” said Allen. “So when we were looking for a business, we wanted an outdoor business and something probably in the mountains. That's how we came across Northern Lights.”


The couple became further convinced about a move after flying to Montana to meet former owner, Mike Garcia, who had put the business up for sale. “When my wife and I first walked into the off-main store, we were like 'Wow! This is a gorgeous store!’ Then as we started talking to Mike about it and learned more about the business that he had built with a lot of thought and a lot of good people in place, it just matched a lot of things we were interested in.”                                                                   

 

From a lifestyle perspective, the couple also liked the area, particularly due to the opportunities it would provide their two children. Besides being close to the mountains, Montana State University is in town. “It truly is a community not unlike where my wife and I grew up in Kansas,” said Allen. “There are no mountains in Kansas, but it was just a combination of a great business that Mike had put together really well along with what we thought would be a great community for us to raise our children in. Already my kids have gotten opportunities to go out and do things that I wish I had when I was a kid.”


But one of the core reasons he bought Northern Lights was for its experienced and knowledgeable staff. A few of the staff have been around since the store first opened as a boating-only store called Head Waters in 1979. With admittedly little retail experience, Allen counts on the staff to do the buying, run the stores, drive community relations and help him grow the business. “I wasn't going to go out and take something that was successful and try to just tear it apart and do something different,” said Allen. “Part of the thing Mike built here was the staff so it was important.”


What Allen believes he brings to Northern Lights is the business acumen gained while working for 16 years mainly in the medical products industry. His last job was director, corporate planning & analysis at Dade Behring Inc., a medical devices manufacturer. He has particular expertise in strategy development and planning, merger and acquisitions, customer/vendor financing, and financial planning and analysis.


“Hopefully what I bring to the team is just kind of a general business sense from my past experience in working for larger companies and hopefully provide some good leadership not only from my work background but also from playing football,” said Allen. “But it's bringing that sense of strategy and direction to help the guys here foster what we're all about, which is helping people enjoy the outdoors and fostering the outdoor lifestyle in a great part of the country.”


Susan, who formerly worked in HR for Jim Beam, helps out on the administrative side. But Allen's financial skills have certainly assisted in buying the two stores, both of which weren't planned. A casual chat with Jim Wilson, the former owner of Pipestone Mountaineering who was looking to sell his store, turned into a deeper conversation that a combination “might make sense.”

 

Allen acquired Pipestone in May 2009.


The owners of Barrel Mountaineering approached Allen since they were ready to sell as well.  That merger likewise made sense since Barrel had been Northern Light's main competitor in Bozeman. The acquisition was completed in late September. “We've been really lucky in these two stores that we bought,” said Allen. “We've got some great people in both locations. We've kept all the employees and they run the stores.”

Besides keeping the staffing, Allen is also working on “retaining the culture” of each location and has kept the original names on each of these stores. The two-story off-Main Northern Lights location focuses on climbing, backpacking, skiing and boating. The Barn is actually a three-story barn focused on selling boats and Northern Light's off-price goods. At Pipestone Mountaineering, the main attraction is its location in downtown Missoula. Meanwhile, Barrel Mountaineering was named after the former owner's father, Barry 'Barrel' Bishop, who was on the first American ascent of Mount Everest in 1963, and features a rich climbing heritage. The smaller store focuses on climbing, outdoor clothing and skiing.


While seeking to maintain the staffing and heritage of each location, Allen is seeking to gain some back-room efficiencies and align common processes across the locations. This includes setting up a shared POS system to gain a better view of inventories and enable the stores to more easily share stock.


Northern Lights’ buying is done across all four stores with specific buyers for camping, footwear, clothing, climbing, ski, and boating.
In marketing, Barrel Mountaineering had already been working with Northern Lights in partnering around on the Bozeman Ice Festival and on ski events. But the company is working to partner more with the Missoula store and also to extend Northern Light's extensive community sponsorships and events to other locations.


Allen said the stores are managing their way through the recession. “It didn't come as a shock this summer when people weren't looking to buy raft packages for thousands of dollars but they were still buying accessories and stuff to go with it. They were still buying kayaks and climbing equipment so it's been all right for us,” said Allen. “And now I think you can tell a little bit that people are starting too loosen up their wallets a bit. So hopefully the recovery is proceeding.”


Longer term, Allen said Northern Lights may acquire more locations down the road but it has no set strategy. The current focus will be on fully capitalizing on the four locations. “Right now we're definitely focusing on integrating the stores that we have. Just getting them on our systems and making sure we're all working as a team,” said Allen.  “As we look to the future, we don't have a goal to acquire 'x' number of doors in 'x' number of years or anything like that. It's more about focusing on doing what we do as well as we can and fostering outdoor recreation and certainly if an opportunity presented itself, we would definitely take a look at it.”