The fast lane

Pete Morley brought his businesses to Sparks from California for familiar reasons.

"The problems with worker's compensation, insurances, rent, utilities and regulation became very stifling," says the owner of two manufacturing companies and a distributorship. "And I wanted to be close to California but I didn't want to live in Las Vegas."

So in 2004, he packed up Prototype Concepts Inc. and Kaminari

Aerodynamics, his two manufacturing companies, along with a distributorship for Racetech Seats and moved them to Sparks.

"We rode about 25 semi-truck loads, and 30 people came with me. I have three employees that have been with me 20 years and they're my core," he said.

Prototype Concepts develops fiberglass and composite parts for customers ranging from automotive manufacturers to entertainment giants such as the Walt Disney Co. Kaminari makes after-market parts such as deck wings and rear skirts to dress up import and domestic cars, and Racetech sells seats and safety products to the racing industry.

A native New Zealander, Morley is a welder and machinist by trade with a background in cars and motorsports. After working in Canada, New Zealand, Washington and Florida, he landed in California.

"I went to work for a kit car company as a welder and ended up being the chassis fabricator, designer and production manager," he said. "That's where I learned to do fiberglass."

In 1986 he started Prototype Concepts with a partner in Santa Ana, Calif.

"We started doing work for Walt Disney making fiberglass parts, and we bought our first polyurethane injection machine in 1989," he said. "We were starting to diversify doing some Disney stuff, private label and manufacturing."

In 2000 Morley bought Kaminari Aerodynamics, at the time the biggest body-kit company in the United States.

"The name Kaminari is the Japanese God of thunder and lighting and it's very well known in Japan," he said.

Morley added the Racetech distributorship in 2002.

Now Morley is dealing with a challenging economy.

"I still have a pretty loyal customer base, and I'm actually growing that even though we're outside California," he said.

A troublesome issue with the rise in fuel prices has been transportation costs. The companies have hired a full-time staffer to keep close tabs on shipping prices, making sure that charges to customers reflect rapidly changing costs.

Material costs are another challenge for the company that relies heavily on supplies created from petroleum.

"It's like walking a tight rope tell the customer that we'll give them a discount on a body part but they'll have to pay the freight. So you're almost trading dollars lower the price to get the sale but give the freight away at cost and it's hurting the bottom line. Now the other thing that's happening to me is my resin prices are going up every time I buy at least 2 to 3 percent," says Morley. "When I moved up here, I guaranteed a lot of my customers that I'd maintain the price they were paying in

California for at least three or four years. It's finally caught up with me and I foresee us raising prices."

Now Morley is changing his marketing.

"I'm going after new customers, high-end customers," he says.

The reputation of Kaminari and Prototype products for quality as well as fit and finish help that effort.

Another competitive advantage comes from speedy delivery. Morley keeps deep levels of inventory at the Sparks warehouse so products can be shipped quickly, especially to customers in the West.

He's been pleased with the companies' reception since their move.

"It's been great to work with Sparks and we've got a good relationship with the fire department," he said. "It was a little difficult to get started, not knowing how they wanted things stored and things like that.

So I went out of my way to actually buy a special storage building. Now the city sends people over here to have a look at it because everybody in town should have one of these."