MC- How did you first get involved with the high-performance aftermarket?
JH- After graduating from college with a business degree, I went to work for Hooker Industries as a District Manager. A college friend had gone to work for them the year before and he got me an interview with Dave Spangler. I had raced with Wiley Cossey and Jack Davis, who also worked at Hooker in manufacturing and
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product design. Dave hired me on the spot, which started a 30-plus-year career.
MC- Tell us a little bit about your career and some of the companies you’ve worked for or run.
JH- I worked for Hooker from 1972-1981. I was promoted from District Manager to National Sales Manager in 1973 and Director of Sales and Marketing in 1976. I left Hooker in 1981 to become the General Sales Manager for Norton West Coast Operations. They were a large public company known as the leading worldwide producer of abrasive materials. It was a great opportunity to see how big companies got it done and I was on a fast track to their Senior Management team. Unfortunately, that would have required a re-location to the east coast, which I wasn’t particularly excited about.
About this time, Dave Spangler called me and wanted to know if I would be interested in returning to (Hooker). They were planning a significant business expansion and wanted me to run the marketing, sales and product development part of the business. I accepted and returned in the fall of 1984. I remained at Hooker until 1998, enjoying great success growing the business.
Fred Wade at Weiand Industries called me in late 1997 wanting to know if I was interested in making a move. Things were going well at Hooker, but Fred was pretty convincing. I became the Vice President/General Manager of Weiand in early 1998. My objective was to learn their business and then try and buy the company with help from my Dad. Unfortunately, Jeff King at Holley beat me to the punch acquiring the company in August 1998. I helped relocate the manufacturing operations to Bowling Green, built a Weiand marketing plan and helped train their sales and technical personnel in Bowling Green. During this time, King expressed strong interest in acquiring a header company, and asked me to approach Gary Hooker to see if he was interested. The negotiations were successful with Holley acquiring Hooker in 1999.
I decided to join Pertronix Inc., in the spring of 1999 in the newly created Director of Marketing and Product Development position. Tom Reh, President/CEO at Pertronix, and I had known each other since early 1985. Tom’s company had really grown but he needed someone to take it the next level with emphasis on the automotive aftermarket. Pertronix is the leading producer of high-performance replacement electronic ignition systems in the automotive, industrial, marine and agricultural markets. My vision was to grow the company’s markets with aggressive internal product development and with strategic acquisitions. In August 2000 we started our exhaust division with the acquisition of Ermie Immerso Enterprises (EIE) and re-branding under the Patriot. Thunderbird and Smithy’s names were added also, and in January 2005 we acquired the Original Doug’s Header from Doug Thorley.