Thule Car Rack Systems, the world-leading manufacturer of car rack systems, announced that they have appointed Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) of Bloomington, MN, as their exclusive U.S. distributor to the independent bicycle channel.

“Our decision to partner with QBP was one of several key initiatives to come out of a five month long Customer Service Re-design Project that we just completed,” said Jeff Padovan, Thule V.P., Sales and Service. “Our current and future business growth depends on our ability to service our dealers better and faster than we ever have before, and QBP's combination of customer service, 24 hour order turnaround, and order fill rate will give us the support to do so.”

Thule's full line of carrying systems will be available with the launch of QBP's 2004 catalog on January 19, 2004. Thule's team of sales representatives will continue to provide uninterrupted service to all dealers in their respective territory.

“QBP gives Thule dealers a significant opportunity to grow their business, reduce their inventory, lower their overall cost of sale, and respond quickly to their customers' needs,” added Padovan. “QBP also provides our reps with another avenue to grow business with dealers that we could not reach before due to our order/free freight minimums.”