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•Case Study: Orange County Choppers

Used with permission from Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

What rocketed to The Discovery Channel's No. 1-rated television show (in fact, it was for some time the No. 1 non-sports show on cable TV) has exploded into a multi-million-dollar retail enterprise. American Chopper is about a family of New York tough guys who run Orange County Choppers (OCC), where they build and sell custom, often outrageous, motorcycles. Those who watch the show know the company's leader, Paul Teutel Sr., for his meticulous, passionate, often fiery attention to detail. Teutel applies that same kind of focus to the company's retail apparel and accessories business, says Joe Puliafico, OCC's director of retail operations. As a matter of fact, Paul Sr. still puts his seal of approval on any merchandise that makes it to the shelves of the company's soon-to-be 30,000-square-foot destination store.

But, before the show's overwhelming popularity kicked in, the retail operation run by Teutel Sr. and sons Paul Jr. and Mikey was selling branded merchandise out of a trailer at OCC's old manufacturing facility. Clerks were making cash register sales, stuffing cash into a box and tallying up end-of-day totals with a calculator. That was little more than five years ago. Today, they're in the process of converting from a 4,000-square-foot facility that entertains 1,000 customers per day to a 2-story, 30,000-square-foot museum-like destination store. The space is necessary, especially considering the 10,000 people who typically show up when the Teutels arrive to sign autographs and bikes. As a matter of fact, OCC's three-lane store is one of the most popular stops on the official New York State bus tour.

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•Case Study: Orange County Choppers