In the race to sell stock car parts to race car drivers, one local company’s loss is another one’s gain.
Chesterfield-based Stock Car Products appears to have run out of gas, but a former employee scooped up the well-established company’s Web domain address.
Carl Blohm opened Ashland-based Carl’s Racing Products in February. He heard Stock Car Products was closing. When Stock Car Products’ domain, www.stockcarproducts.com, became available shortly thereafter, Blohm jumped at the chance to grab an established domain in the industry. And the move has apparently paid off, he said.
“Stock Car Products was one of the most vital bastions of race parts in the country,” said Blohm, who worked for Stock Car Products until 2007. The domain “became available when they stopped paying for it. We were lucky enough to be in a position to act. It has changed the complexion of our business completely.”
Several calls over the past two weeks to Stock Car Products’ Iron Bridge Road office were met with a disconnected number. The office was closed and locked during business hours this week and the property is for sale, listed at $1.15 million. The company launched a new website in August, but its toll-free sales phone line listed on the site is no longer active. Stock Car Products has a Twitter feed that hasn’t had a new post since early September.
Past press reports show that Stock Car Products began feeling pains from the recession in 2009. See a report about the company from the Richmond Times Dispatch here.
Blohm, who didn’t want to comment about his former employer and former competitor, said the recession has been tough on the entire racing industry.
“There are many people in the racing industry that have closed up,” Blohm said.
As a new business owner and pretty much a one-man show, Blohm said he wasn’t prepared for the kind of exposure that the established domain brought to his Hanover County-based company.
“I know a lot about the car parts,” Blohm said. “But when it comes to being prepared to be part of the business world, sometimes one can be ill-prepared for the expansion and being able to survive it.”
“I don’t know anything about the Internet or computers,” said Blohm, 52. “I was told that an Internet site that’s been around as long as Stock Car Products, you must take the opportunity to take a hold of it because of the seniority. I then understood what this was all about.”
The site now leads customers to his business from as far away as New Zealand and Sweden. Those customers include real racing teams and weekend warriors, Blohm said.
“Customers are every person who ever dreamed of racing,” he said. “A California dentist who’s racing on the weekends. A dad whose kids are eating macaroni so he can go racing on the weekends.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].
In the race to sell stock car parts to race car drivers, one local company’s loss is another one’s gain.
Chesterfield-based Stock Car Products appears to have run out of gas, but a former employee scooped up the well-established company’s Web domain address.
Carl Blohm opened Ashland-based Carl’s Racing Products in February. He heard Stock Car Products was closing. When Stock Car Products’ domain, www.stockcarproducts.com, became available shortly thereafter, Blohm jumped at the chance to grab an established domain in the industry. And the move has apparently paid off, he said.
“Stock Car Products was one of the most vital bastions of race parts in the country,” said Blohm, who worked for Stock Car Products until 2007. The domain “became available when they stopped paying for it. We were lucky enough to be in a position to act. It has changed the complexion of our business completely.”
Several calls over the past two weeks to Stock Car Products’ Iron Bridge Road office were met with a disconnected number. The office was closed and locked during business hours this week and the property is for sale, listed at $1.15 million. The company launched a new website in August, but its toll-free sales phone line listed on the site is no longer active. Stock Car Products has a Twitter feed that hasn’t had a new post since early September.
Past press reports show that Stock Car Products began feeling pains from the recession in 2009. See a report about the company from the Richmond Times Dispatch here.
Blohm, who didn’t want to comment about his former employer and former competitor, said the recession has been tough on the entire racing industry.
“There are many people in the racing industry that have closed up,” Blohm said.
As a new business owner and pretty much a one-man show, Blohm said he wasn’t prepared for the kind of exposure that the established domain brought to his Hanover County-based company.
“I know a lot about the car parts,” Blohm said. “But when it comes to being prepared to be part of the business world, sometimes one can be ill-prepared for the expansion and being able to survive it.”
“I don’t know anything about the Internet or computers,” said Blohm, 52. “I was told that an Internet site that’s been around as long as Stock Car Products, you must take the opportunity to take a hold of it because of the seniority. I then understood what this was all about.”
The site now leads customers to his business from as far away as New Zealand and Sweden. Those customers include real racing teams and weekend warriors, Blohm said.
“Customers are every person who ever dreamed of racing,” he said. “A California dentist who’s racing on the weekends. A dad whose kids are eating macaroni so he can go racing on the weekends.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].