Ariens Co. hosted a grand opening and ribbon cutting in celebration of opening Brillion Power Equipment, the company’s new concept store. Ariens Co. Chairman & CEO Dan Ariens, Brillion Power Equipment Business Partner and Store Manager Mike Buboltz, Wisconsin State Assembly Rep. Ron Tusler, Brillion Mayor Gary Deiter and Ariens Co. representatives attended the event.
The grand opening offered several activities for attendees, including a demo area for testing zero-turn mowers, a chain saw carver, with demonstrations from Stihl, kids crafts from the Brillion Nature Center and a brat fry benefiting Brillion High School. Attendees were given the chance to win one of several product giveaways from Ariens, Gravely and Stihl.
In February of this year, Ariens announced the purchase of a vacant building across the street from the company’s headquarters with plans to create a fully-operational concept store so employees could use to test merchandising concepts.
Ariens partnered with local Ariens and Gravely dealer Mike Buboltz to manage the store as a power equipment dealership. Buboltz is the owner of Hardware Plus, located in downtown Brillion, which has sold Ariens equipment since 2011. The new dealership will be open to the public for sales of Ariens and Gravely brand power equipment and parts sales. Hardware Plus will continue to perform service at its downtown Brillion location.
“We have a great corporate headquarters and a fantastic museum in Brillion, but we didn’t have a dedicated space to showcase our latest and greatest innovations. This store will allow the community, our dealers and everyone else we partner with to come in and see what we’re creating,” Ariens remarks.
This is not a factory direct store with discounted products and close-out pricing, according to Ariens, but instead, is an independently-operated dealership with Buboltz managing day-to-day retail activities, while product placement, point-of-sale and marketing support will come directly from the Ariens Co. marketing team.
The store will assist the company in gathering customer feedback and retail best practices that will benefit the entire Ariens and Gravely dealer base, according to Ariens. Dealers who make visits to Brillion will have an opportunity to gain insight on the best practice concepts during visits to the store.