LESCO To Carry Kawasaki Brand In Stores

The Kawasaki line, manufactured by Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., includes hand-held string trimmers, hedge trimmers, back pack blowers, 4-cycle engines, generators and pumps. The products have been available since May at more than 200 LESCO Service Centers®, which serve the lawn and landscape market, and 75 Stores-on-Wheels®, which serve the golf market.

LESCO cited the name recognition of Kawasaki as the reason to forgo a private labeling arrangement, according to Pete Thompson, senior equipment product manager for LESCO. "LESCO is known for manufacturing larger pieces of equipment – spreaders, sprayers, walk-behind mowers – and we had been private labeling the past several years from a couple of different companies for our hand-held product line. When we went and looked at it this time, we decided not to do a private label and look at the brand name recognition that we could pull from a big house like Kawasaki," he said.

Kawasaki has a large market share in its commercial mowing group, which caters to the same end-user as LESCO. "Our customers have recognized and relied on Kawasaki engines for their mowers and associate the name with high quality and dependability," said William Foley, chairman, president and CEO of LESCO.

As far as future product lines to add to LESCO stores, Thompson said the company always looks at different brands of equipment to sell at LESCO stores. He also said the decision to use the name brand of a product or to use it under a private label depends on LESCO’s company strategy and is determined on a case-by-case basis. "It depends on what type of product," he said.

For more information about LESCO visit the company’s web site at www.lesco.com.