From backboards to fuel tanks

Instead of heading the production of basketball hoops and funky skateboards, David Allen now oversees the manufacturing of fuel tanks for lawn and garden equipment.

But sports-related products like ATVs and golf carts are in Allen's sights in his new job at Kelch Corp.

Allen, formerly president of Huffy Sports in Waukesha, is applying his years of experience managing the production of sports equipment to Kelch's fuel containment manufacturing business in Mequon.

Both industries share similar concerns, Allen says, despite the obvious differences between a consumer products maker and a manufacturer of components for lawn and garden equipment.

"The parallels are the need for innovation and the need to do things differently than we've done in the past," Allen said.

To that end, Allen plans to expand Kelch's market potential by selling to firms beyond the lawn and garden field. The next step, he says, is to supply fuel tanks for other small engine products such as motorized golf carts, all-terrain vehicles and marine engines.

Allen became general manager in May of the fuel tank division for Cedarburg-based Kelch. Kelch has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Bemis Manufacturing Co. Inc., Sheboygan Falls, following a January 1999 acquisition by Bemis.

Allen will be in charge of diversifying a product line that dominates the injection-molded fuel tank market for lawn mowers and other pieces of motorized garden equipment.

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