May 9, 2016 - SmartEtailing and Harvest Retail Marketing (Harvest) announce the merger of the two companies resulting in richer service offerings and enhancements for the bicycle industry. Ryan Atkinson, Founder and President of Harvest in Omaha, Nebraska, will lead the merged company as President beginning May 9, 2016. The company will retain the name SmartEtailing.
Steve Flagg and Mary Henrickson will continue to be majority owners of the new SmartEtailing. “Harvest has an outstanding reputation of being dealer centric, service oriented and bicycle passionate,” said Steve Flagg. “Over the years, they have enhanced and developed SmartEtailing websites for dealers and they share many of the same customers as SmartEtailing. Ryan and his team have a reputation for innovation and professionalism and this will greatly benefit the customers for both companies. I am very confident that Ryan is the ideal person to lead this talented SmartEtailing team.”
The combination of Harvest and SmartEtailing broadens the scope of expertise that will result in a number of exciting initiatives and advancements for retailers and supply chain partners. The company will be headquartered in Boulder, Colorado in a new space planned for move-in this fall. Atkinson will split his time initially between the two enterprises with plans to merge operations over the next few months when several members of the Harvest staff relocate to Boulder.
“SmartEtailing has built an exceptional infrastructure and customer service network for independent bicycle retailers to succeed in a changing market,” shared Ryan Atkinson. “These two teams have the combined capability to significantly improve the quality of marketing for retailers, brands and suppliers. I look forward to working with SmartEtailing’s many customers and partners to identify opportunities to serve them even better.”
Both SmartEtailing and Harvest will continue to operate as separate entities in the short term as the teams work together to identify new unified processes. Customers will maintain the same contact persons they have at present and Atkinson assured that customers of both companies should expect continuity of service throughout the merger process.
The merger comes shortly after the announcement of the recent retirement of both founders Mark Graff and Barry Brenner. Graff will stay on as advisor and mentor for a few months once Atkinson assumes his new role.
Graff offered congratulations and added, “the addition of Harvest's services to the talented SmartEtailing team, along with Ryan's capable leadership, creates a super service-oriented organization poised to go well beyond what either firm/team, separately could hope to achieve.”
Additional merger details will be released over the coming months so customers and partners can navigate this change fluidly.
About SmartEtailing
SmartEtailing is the leading provider of web solutions and data integration to the specialty bicycle industry. Founded in 1999, SmartEtailing empowers local specialty retailers, and their suppliers, by providing the tools and technologies to effectively meet their business goals toward success. SmartEtailing updates and adds nearly 10,000 brand products monthly to its catalog library making it the largest content database of bicycle products in the world. Other services developed by SmartEtailing include Buy Local Now which enables brands to link online customers to local stores, Supplier Sync, technology that displays warehouse inventory on retailer’s websites for expanded selection, and increased sales, and MAP Protection Service that regulates and protects MAP pricing among dealers and suppliers.
About Harvest Retail Marketing
Founded in 2007, Harvest Retail Marketing is a marketing and creative agency catering exclusively to independent bicycle retailers, bringing US bicycle retailers sophisticated marketing solutions with a friendly and approachable standard of service. Harvest strives to help bicycle dealers grow through better marketing by offering shared services to a dealership network designed to help the country’s best bicycle retailers bring the right customers into their stores ready to buy. Harvest Retail Marketing services include direct mail, email marketing, website maintenance, social media marketing, search marketing, advertising design and so much more.
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