SVB in Vegas is No Gamble The Hamilton Family Runs Sun Valley Bumper To Win The Truck Accessory Game Marshall Spiegel Marshall Spiegel

Although Randy Hamilton and Cathy Christy are both from Phoenix, they didn’t know each other until they met as students at Arizona Northern University in Flagstaff. Cupid soon did his thing and they were married while still in college. After graduation, the couple settled in Kingman, Ariz. Randy worked as an auto expediter handling Simpson Toolboxes and a full line of accessories, with Las Vegas as an important part of his territory. While working as an expediter, he made several valuable contacts among automotive accessory manufacturers. From 1980 to 1985, Randy and his dad were in the pipe and steel business.

In 1986, Randy founded his company in Kingman, calling it Sun Valley Bumper (SVB). The company was located in Kingman from 1986 to 1997 at two locations. In 1994, Randy took advantage
of his earlier experience in Las Vegas and opened a second SVB store there. SVB was then operating the Kingman store and the Las Vegas store, two  hours apart. In 1999, Randy sold his Kingman store and the new owner continued to operate under the SVB name. Randy and Christy moved to Las Vegas and concentrated on the Las Vegas store — a 15,000-square-foot facility that had been in the same location from 1994 to 1999. In ‘99, Randy moved the store to a second location — a 20,000-square-foot facility one block from the first location, where SVB remained until early 2002.

All this rich history brings us to today and the fabulous — and it is fabulous — new 20,000-square-foot Sun Valley Bumper building on a full acre of land purchased by the company in March and opened in May of ‘02. Originally occupied by a hot tub and spa company, the building has plenty of individual rooms for product display and “private” waiting rooms for customers having work done on their vehicles. The huge showroom has large drive-through doors through which display vehicles can be driven in and out. The building appears to be tailor made for Randy’s business.

“Our new building is about the same size as the old building we left,” says Randy, “but we own this new one. It’s on a large piece of land with plenty of parking and room for expansion, and it’s in an excellent location just about dead center in the middle of Las Vegas.”

Although Randy doesn’t sell bumpers anymore, he still retains the Sun Valley Bumper name.

“We’ve talked about changing the company name,” smiles Randy, “but it’s always been Sun Valley Bumper. I figure if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. The name has always worked just fine and it still does.”

Today’s SVB has a staff of 16 including 10 installers; three in sales and three in the front office: Randy, Cathy, and Randy’s mom, Edwina, who is office manager. That count doesn’t include Randy’s dad, Wendoyl, who handles everything involved with the company’s Web site, and Randy and Cathy’s three offspring: 20-year-old David, a business administration major at UNLV and a part-time installer and deliveryman at SVB, and their 17-year-old twins, Melissa, who helps out as a part-time receptionist and secretary, and Brian, who works with his grandpa on the Web page. The twins both work daily after high school. If  our count is correct, that makes seven Hamiltons — three generations — pulling
together to make SVB succeed.

“My sales people, Rich, Brad, and Alex, have been with me forever,” says Randy. “They’re just like family.”                                           

 In the new building, the salespeople sit at open desks in a huge showroom much like car salespeople. The sales counter
atmosphere found in most retail stores is nowhere to be found.                                          

Okay, so Randy Hamilton has good people to run his business, but what about the products?

“Our major lines are Weather Guard, Protecta Liner, Smittybilt, Snugtop, and Putnam,” reports Randy. “Our biggest sellers are Snugtop and Weather Guard, which run neck and neck for volume sales. We are a warehouse for KNAACK, a
division of Weather Guard. We do an
active business in KNAACK job site boxes and installations of their line in work vans. Actually, SVB sells pretty stuff for sport truck enthusiasts and useful stuff for contractors.”

Ask Randy about advertising and he’ll tell you, “We depend on word of mouth mostly. We do get some dealer referrals and we spend a few dollars in the yellow pages and in a small neighborhood newsmagazine. Frankly, our customers seem to find us without a serious advertising effort.”

So how’s business at Sun Valley Bumper? According to the company records, SVB has enjoyed double-digit increases every year since it was founded.

“Our increase last year was 11 per cent,” says Randy. “Frankly, we deal in big ticket items mostly. Our average ticket price is $1,500. Last year we grossed about
$3 million. Our installation department is a big profit center. Of course, we install everything we sell except entertainment centers. We used to install them, but we found it easier to contract with a specialist. Suspension modifications have never been
a big part of the business, but we still do several a month.”

It sounds as if Sun Valley Bumper
is sitting pretty in their new home in Las Vegas, but Randy Hamilton didn’t get where he is because he’s complacent. Bring up the subject of his future plans and he’ll tell you about his two thoughts.

“I have plenty of room to expand this building,” muses Randy, “and I might...of course, a satellite store, maybe in Henderson, could be the way to go...”

After spending some time with Randy Hamilton and watching his Sun Valley Bumper in operation, I have to bet that whatever the guy decides to do in the future will be the right move to further success.