Tuff Country has been through some changes, from the founding 35 years ago to it’s purchase by a private equity firm to being back in the hands of the founder, Kelly Davis. Kelly shares all the details and what’s coming next. We wish him all the best in his reboot! Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
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3:07 – I guess we’ve always been off-road entrepreneurs
6:54 – He said, “swim or sink, it’s up to you. You control your own destiny here.”
12:26 – we really engaged with grassroots events all over the country
16:45 – one thing we really tried to do was control our growth
22:06 – we thought, if we can survive 2008 and climb back out of this hole, we’re going to be some tough dudes
33:02 – they buy you because you are a well-earned machine, you’re profitable, you have value, and then they get away from your core values
43:05 – we made an offer, they accepted and the work started, we had to reboot this thing.
51:13 – Quitten’s easy, man, so easy. The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.560] – Big Rich Klein
My next guest on Conversations with Big Rich is Kelly Davis. Kelly and his brother Troy started Tuff Country suspensions 35 years ago, built it into a successful business, and sold to a private equity firm, and now Kelly has purchased it back. We will be discussing Kelly’s life, business, and future. Hello, Kelly Davis. It’s great to talk to you. I’m really interested in all the news, the fresh news that’s coming with you and getting your company back. But before we get into all that, we got to find out more about you. But I want to say thank you so much for agreeing to come on and being on the podcast.
[00:02:22.040] – Kelly Davis
Great, Rich. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, it’s been a crazy ride, but I appreciate you having me on your podcast. And looking forward to catching up. And thanks for the good opportunity.
[00:02:30.850] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah. So let’s start at the very beginning. And where were you born and raised?
[00:02:36.640] – Kelly Davis
Absolutely. Born and raised in Utah. I’m a Utah guy. I left for a couple of years. I went to play college baseball back in Tennessee, but Utah has always been home, man, and it’s born and raised.
[00:02:49.320] – Big Rich Klein
All right. I got to ask, what position did you play?
[00:02:51.740] – Kelly Davis
I was a middle infielder. Second base in shortstop, yeah. There you go. Okay.
[00:02:56.150] – Big Rich Klein
Quick reactions.
[00:02:58.390] – Kelly Davis
Had to be.
[00:02:59.390] – Big Rich Klein
So let’s go back to the very beginning and talk about those early years.
[00:03:07.700] – Kelly Davis
Yeah, so my dad, I guess we’ve always been off-road entrepreneurs, if you will. My dad was the original owner of Plaza cycle, which was here in Salt Lake City. And now it’s Karl Malone. Karl Malone bought it. My dad sold in the early ’80s. But we got our entrepreneurship from dad, from the off-road. So dad That actually goes back to racing against Roger DeCoster back in the old days in desert racing. So that’s how far back we go. And so basically, I was raised in a motorcycle shop, basically, if you will. I used to ride an Indian, it was an Indian 40. I learned how to ride a motorcycle before a bicycle. I had training wheels on it and everything. And then during the winter, we raced what they called the Articats, but they called the Babycats. Well, we raced them because they were like 30 cc’s. So we’ve got to just… This is what we know. We’ve been raised around it. And my dad started an off-road shop in West Valley City. It’s called Mister 4×4. And that’s taking you back to the early ’80s, if you will.
[00:04:15.940] – Big Rich Klein
That was Mister 4×4?
[00:04:17.880] – Kelly Davis
Yeah, it was spelled out M-I-S-T-E-R. It was Mister 4×4. What happened is my dad was basically retired, if you will. He’s 81 years old, still alive, and still every single day on hot rods and cars. But he was smart back in the day that he bought a lot of property out West Valley City, which was Redwood Road and about 3500 south. He kept buying all the dry farms up going west, and now that’s pretty popular area.
[00:04:47.100] – Big Rich Klein
It’s all housing and businesses.
[00:04:50.000] – Kelly Davis
Yeah. Yeah. And he was crazy like a fox. Dad had what the airway called him the Midas Touch. Everything did turn to gold. He also worked his butt off every day. But so dad went to buy off-roads stuff for my brother and I for Christmas. He went to buy… My brother had a ’79 Toyota, and I had one of the first Suzuki Jeeps we brought over from Guam before they even were available here in the States. And he went to buy some accessories for him at an off-road shop. I won’t give you the name. It’s no longer here. It’s no longer up. But he just walked in to buy some parts, and it was in November. And it was with my mom, and they both went in The place was a dump, if you will. They were treated poorly. My dad said, Hey, I’d like to buy a bumper for this Toyota. He was just treated poorly. They said, Well, you should have been ordering that two months ago, and brushed him off. My dad’s feisty, and I guess it runs in the family. So my dad said, The guy said something. He goes, You’re not going to buy anything?
[00:05:52.190] – Kelly Davis
He said, No, I’m not. He goes, But what I am going to do is I’m starting off road shop and I’m running you out of business. He told the guy, And the guy said, why don’t you send me an invitation to your grand opening? So it was confrontational, but dad did. He opened up an off road store and ran him out of business about a year later. And we grew that place. Yeah, we grew up to four stores. We had one in Idaho Falls, one there in West Valley City, one in Sandy, and Ogden as well. So my brother and I ran the Ogden store. So we got up every morning and drove to Ogden. We’d load the van up and take the parts we had sold the day before. And basically, I guess I’ll rewind a little bit. I was about, well, I was 20. I was 20, my brother was 22. And we went up to Ogden and we looked at a space. My dad says, what do you think? I said, yeah, I think it’s a great location. I think it’ll be good. He says, all right, well, we went up there, signed the lease, and my dad handed the keys to me and my brother, and said, swim or sink. READ MORE
