Company Name:
ARISTO-CRAFT TRAINS Your Name:
Lewis Polk
Your Title:
President
Age:
66
How many years have you been in the Large Scale Train Industry?
35 years, when I saw the introduction of G Gauge back into the Garden at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in 1968. I attended with my father who tried to obtain the line, but someone had gotten into the fair a day before the show opened and jumped the claim.
Two years later the line went to a firm called REA and we got the job of selling the line in the U.S. for the importer who got the line then.
TEN BUSINESS QUESTIONS
Q1. What is your role in the company?
Chief Operating Officer (CEO), but in effect "the buck stops at my desk" and I set the operating procedures to manage the flow of the business and how to resolve issues that come up. Also, the investment decision is, at the end of the day, my gamble and my money, so I never have gambled in Las Vegas in spite of numerous visits. I gamble for the company daily and with huge stakes and no one can make that decision for me.
However, my wife runs the company as President on a daily basis and she takes care of today, while I take care of tomorrow. My son Jonathan, takes care of the Forum and our presentation of the annual catalog. My nephew, Scott, is being groomed to take charge when I retire and we have a wonderful team, Aristo, that really plays the game while I manage the team.
Q2. What are your company's greatest contributions to the industry/hobby? How has your company helped the industry/hobby grow?
The introduction of standard gauge era trains to the mix after only Narrow Gauge trains were offered for 20 years. This broke open the hobby to those that wanted to see trains from their childhood, not from just history books.
Adding a popular price track system in brass and stainless steel as a railroad's foundation is built from the ground up.
Bringing a popular priced radio control system for outdoor use that freed the hobbyist from the anchor of the fixed controller and allowed them to walk around with their trains.
Our patented motor block that gives huge pulling power and freedom of movement on the uneven track that is a necessity out of doors without the use of un-scale slide shoes.
Q3. With the growth of Internet how has the industry/hobby been impacted? How do you feel your company has leveraged and utilize these new communication resources to grow your business and the hobby in general?
We were the first G Gauge manufacturer on the Internet and have used it for a two way door between the consumer and us. We can't be behind the counter of each hobby dealer, but the Internet gives us a window on the G Gauge world that was impossible before the Internet. Our entire catalog is also available to anyone in the world and our forum allows two way converstation about our line between us and independently between our end users we call "AristoNauts".
Q4. There are some who would argue that the hobby has reached a plateau and that growth is stagnate. Do you find this to be true; why or why not?
This is a wonderful hobby and we need to let more people know about it. The Garden Train Association of manufacturers has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of publicity in the press and we are doing our best to spread the word. We need the help of our hobbyist customers to open their homes to the public on garden tours and shows to spread the good word about this wonderful hobby.
Q5. How do you see the industry changing in the next ten years?
More and more electronics to make the operation more realistic and more fun to operate. Our Train Engineer R/C system has helped to do this and we will do more and more in radio control. Many people do not know that Polk's Hobby is a leading force in the R/C model world too, and we will cross exchange technology between the two companies.
Trains have become more realitic than toyish and this will only continue to accelerate. We have made the adjustment while still keeping the prices affordable. We design the trains locally to keep the trains as authentic as possible and produce them in an Asian mass production factory that is the largest such in the world. Our facilities are unparalleled in capability and performance and the latest and greatest equipment needed to make better trains is available to make Aristo-Craft Trains to the highest standard.
The Polk family have been pioneers in the Hobby Industry for some 70 years and have been active in G Gauge trains for some 35 years when we took another company from $100,000 to $20,000,000 as the main sales force power in the U.S. and when they wanted to open their own sales division in the U.S., we started our company to better address the needs for American standard era trains and in standard gauge.
It's a family business with my wife Maryann operating the business as the President and recently our nephew, Scott Polk, has joined with an eye to continue the business for the future. Our son, Jonathan Polk keeps his hand in by running our Web Forum and by doing the catalog each year. The best is yet to come.
Q6. Does your company have a R&D strategy to keep abreast of emerging technologies or to develop the next "new" technology? What are the emerging technologies that consumers can expect to see in the next one to three years?
Aristo-Craft keeps a staff of engineers in our facility who are proficient in mechanical and r/f electronic categories. As new technologies are introduced into the general market place we are always scanning them to see what can be adapted for use in G gauge trains and what components have become available for adoption to model railroading and G gauge specifically. We only make G Gauge trains, so we are concentrated on this one gauge, not several gauges and have a staff of 20 people in the U.S. and 500 who build our trains for your railroad.
We have a hand in all aspects of the hobby and will keep expanding what we have already begun, rather than a strategy for new concepts. Sure and steady growth of our current product line and upgrades to the product every time we learn a new trick so that our improvements are gradual, not radical.
Q7. What type of Quality Assurance systems do you have in place to ensure the integrity of the products you are offering to consumers?
Our factory has more Q.C. people than most factories have workers. We supervise every step and keep careful records of the production technique in a computerized MRP system that allows for uniformity of product between runs. We have a large building devoted to testing with all of the latest test equipment and give every new product a 500 to 1,000 hour life test before turning the product over to the consumer.
Our in house engineers and technicians review every product from an advance sample from each run before we OK it's being shipped and this means a huge FEDEX bill to get the products here.
There is a 100 % effort for each run and for each new product. Never is this product shortcutted. No train before it's time is our in-house motto.
Q8. In your view, what are the challenges or threats to the growth of the hobby and how is your company preparing to overcome these challenges?
We are fighting for the consumers time in this very busy world, but there is no more affordable past-time that the family can do together at home and we know that this will win the day for G Gauge trains.
Q9. How do you determine which prototype railroad equipment you will produce and now do you select the railroad names?
I did a survey of our customers over the Internet and have used this as a guide, but we have a staff train historian, David Newall, who gives us choices to supplement the survey and guide us in our choices. David has spent many years in the hobby industry including a major stint at Atlas Trains and understands the marketplace. However, at the end of the day, I make the final decision based on what will give us the greatest return for our investment and make the most people happy.
Q10. If you could change one aspect of the hobby, what would you change?
I think Internet pricing is a poor substitute for over-the-counter service and the emphasis on price does not serve the industry well.
FIVE PERSONAL QUESTIONS
Q1. What is your educational background?
I have an MBA from NYU.
Q2. What is your favorite product you produce?
The Train Engineer as it makes the operation of trains so much more fun and easier. It's also the latest and greatest high technology and yet provides a simple and practical solution for operating a garden train while you walk around with it.
Q3. What is the last book that you read?
Patricia Cromwell's Potter's Field, but I read several best sellers a week and especially on plane trips on the 20 or so plane trips to shows that I take a year or to the factory in China.
Q4. Do you have a Large Scale Layout. Describe please. Photos?
I have a point to point in front of my house and a 20x40 indoor layout raised 40" off the floor in my basement.
Q5. If you were not working in the Large Scale Train industry, where would you like to be working?
I would like to be a hobby retailer. I had managed the World's Largest Hobby Shop on Fifth Ave. in NYC, but it was before the era of computers. I was driven to distraction by having to count 50,000 items per month and trying to gauge what was a month's supply. With today's computers you can order daily and re-fill by the next day.
I'm a retailer at heart and have used this experience to decide what will move over the counter. There is nothing like a voice behind the counter and I miss being that voice.
Our forum is as close as I get today, but it's not like face-to-face and physically showing the merchandise to a consumer and to point out the features of the item personally.
| Comments |
| Wow, I guess my Polk's crystal ball was not as accurate as it might have been. Who knew that the END would come in 2013 of his empire, along with the demise of this fantastic site, as well. Sad on both counts! |
| Elaine Haggenbottom - 12/07/2013 - 05:11 |
Top of Page
