CUSTOM VEHICLE SOLUTIONS DEPARTMENT
EXPANDING CLUB CAR’S MANUFACTURING HORIZONS

Special Units Carring the Mail in Sweden, Ice Cream in South Carolina. Tucked away in a far corner of Club Car’s 330,000-square-foot manufacturing facility here, Randal Crook is giving the well-worn “Field of Dreams” axiom a new twist: “Dream it and we will build it,” he says.

   Crook is manager of Club Car’s Custom Vehicle Solutions department, where he and his team of designers, engineers and creative thinkers are turning other people’s sometimes wild-and-crazy ideas into vehicles that perform all manner of tasks. Currently, vehicles from Club Car’s CVS group are delivering the mail in Sweden, ice cream treats in South Carolina and ammunition at FBI training facilities in Texas and Georgia.

   “If someone can give us a vision of what they want, we’ll see if we can make it safely and affordably,” Crook says.

   The Custom Vehicle Solutions department was established in 1994, and the two-person operation produced less than 100 vehicles its first year. Now the largest and most successful OEM for custom engineered products, Club Car’s 13-person CVS department will produce more than 7,000 vehicles this year, including solutions for an increasingly diverse customer base.

   For years now Club Car has been making special mail units for the Swedish postal service to increase maneuverability for its mail carriers. Now the Italian government has requested a prototype for approval to meet similar needs. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center asked Club Car to configure oversized metal containers to transport guns and ammunition to trainees in the field and has placed the vehicles at facilities in Texas and Georgia. A retirement community in Florida and a beachfront campground in South Carolina have ordered refrigerated ice cream vehicles. Then there’s the upscale oceanfront community in Florida that requested vehicles equipped with special “turtle safe” LED headlights so residents could explore the beach at night without disturbing the mating habits of the endangered loggerheads.

   Responding to growing interest in the custom vehicle area, Club Car recently added CVS to its web site (www.ClubCar.com), allowing customers to view an assortment of custom designs.

   Other than the vehicles’ standard aluminum frames, the customized vehicles don’t resemble golf cars much at all. But that doesn’t bother Club Car in the least.

   “Our experience and capabilities give us the ability to provide solutions in a wide range of areas where smaller, four-wheeled vehicles are needed,” said Dewey Holland, Club Car’s senior vice president for global strategic marketing. “CVS is a prime example of leveraging those capabilities outside our traditional parameters.”

May 12, 2003