A Thought Provoking Drive

[skiroule]

I had to make a trip to Thief River Falls today for a medical appointment, which took me past both the Polaris and Arctic Cat assembly plants in Roseau and TRF. I’m sure people that drive this route regularly don’t pay much attention but to me it seemed like an unusual experience to pass major plants of both of the last two American snowmobile manufacturers on a short two-hour drive.

These are big plants and it made me think about how important these industries are to the economy of the region. If they were to go away or downsize their production, I guess life would go on but a lot of decent paying jobs would be lost and most likely not replaced. It’s interesting that both companies are all but begging for applicants. The sign-on incentives and benefits now are crazy, compared to a few years back. I take this as a good sign.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the future of Arctic Cat snowmobiles and I really hope the product line continues, not only for the reasons previously mentioned, but also their engineering/design effort just seems to get better and better. The Catalyst looks like a real winner and it has some guys I know that are in the market for a new machine seriously considering the Cat as their next sled.

Just some thoughts that occurred to me on the drive today. Maybe I need something to think about besides snowmobiles.

 

[hermie]

Well nothing wrong thinking about sleds. It will be 95 degrees in the middle of July and I will be thinking about sleds. I really do hope the new Cat is the real deal. Already stinks Yamaha called it quits but they called it quits years ago when they pretty much became Cat. It will be good for the sport for all three to be doing good.

 

[elf]

Back in a previous career I made way to many trips to Roseau. But since I haven't worked for Polaris since 2001 it would be fun to see it again. The only saving grace about those trips though is we always flew. Did a lot more trips to the plant in Spirit Lake Iowa where we made the bikes. Very dominate employer in their towns. I remember Marvin Windows and Polaris competing for the same employees and was lucky enough to be there one time when it was a Roseau/Warroad hockey game and we got to it.