BY MADELYN HUBBARD ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Established in 2005 , Centre Powersports & Marine , located in Sauk Centre , Minnesota , welcomed Eric Peterson as a co-owner in 2017 . Mark Fiedler started conversations with Peterson about becoming involved in the business and Fidler now holds a five percent ownership stake .

Heather Peterson , the wife of Eric Peterson , is also employed at the dealership , and their 11-year-old son , Ben , often spends time there after school . “ He ’ s pretty proud of the dealership ,” Eric Peterson says . “ It ’ s pretty fun . We ’ re a very family driven dealership .”

“ When you start here , the first thing my wife and I will tell you is that you will not miss any of your kids ’ school activities ,” he continues . “ Right now , one of our staff is gone because her daughter had something going on at school .”

Before the Peterson ’ s entered the powersports industry , the two worked at the same independent phone company . “ Many couples can ’ t do it . We enjoy it . It ’ s been so long , it ’ s just what we ’ re used to ,” Peterson says . “ It works really well for us . It also helps from the aspect of having two of us that are all in and understand what the goal is . It really brings in the whole family atmosphere .”

THE CENTRE WORK FAMILY He shares that as owners , they make it known that their employees ’ jobs are important , but ultimately , that their families come first . This is why employees are dedicated to the business , according to Peterson .

“ Our work family is incredible . These guys and gals snowmobile together , they go fishing together in the winter , and they hang out together . My dad passed away two and a half years ago and every one of my employees showed up . That ’ s the kind of team it is .”

“ We had our open house last weekend , and we took everyone out to dinner . After we got a ton of text messages saying , ‘ thank you for all you do for us ,’” he continues . “ They truly appreciate what we do for them , and we truly appreciate what they do for us . We could not do what we do without them .”

FALL OPEN HOUSE The Pflipsen Racing snocross team attended the dealership ’ s annual fall season open house . Drivers signed autographs and gave attendees a tour of their hauler . One snowmobile club parked a groomer on the parking lot , and another provided a side-by-side with tracks for attendees to get a close look at .

“ We had tents outside with clearance clothing and inside was all our gear and clothing specials . We had reps from every one of the clothing brands that we carry on hand ,” Peterson says . “ Also , we had a lot of avalanche safety gear sold that day .”

Mike Duffy from Avalanche 1 held an avalanche training course . Half a semi load of sawdust was used to mimic snow . “ It ’ s super realistic ,” Peterson says . “ We had 40 spots open on Saturday and we had 37 spots filled . So , lots of people got very good training .”

The 100.7 KIK local radio station broadcasted live for two hours and served brats . “ I think they served 300 brats ,” Peterson says .

And the fall open house is not the only way the dealership is engaged with its community . In October , Centre held a coat drive . “ We do all of the local parades . We sponsor some stuff with the local chamber in town . They have chamber events every month and we go to as many as those as we can . We belong to as many of the local snowmobile clubs as we can ,” Peterson says .

TRAIL TALK TUESDAYS AND TEST DRIVE FRIDAYS

The dealership also contributes to the snowmobile community through its Trail Talk Tuesdays Facebook posts . Peterson started posting snowmobile trail conditions two years ago . “ Two or three snowmobile clubs posted what their trail conditions were . I took their updates and put it together in one post on our Facebook page ,” he says .

Then he reached out to a couple of clubs asking for their trail conditions to add to his trail update and the weekly posts were named Trail Talk Tuesdays . “ It was pretty crazy how this started spreading around the state ,” he says . “ Sometimes it will have over 3,000 views . It ’ s been a cool marketing thing , not just to bring awareness to

Centre Powersports & Marine owners Eric and Heather Peterson are pictured with their son , Ben , who is often at the dealership after school . Photos courtesy of Centre Powersports & Marine .

Eric and Heather Peterson became co-owners of the dealership in 2017 .

Along with the dealership , Peterson also acquired Skidoooutlet . com . The website was launched in 2008 and originally only sold snowmobiling gear and apparel . He has since expanded what the e-commerce store offers .

“ We sell all your major snowmobile clothing brands . We also sell parts . In the summer we sell a number of brands of lifejackets and water skis and wakeboards – things like that . And year around we have side-by-side and ATV riding gear .”

The e-commerce store is an entity of Centre Sports LLC . Operations take place within the dealership and are handled by a team of three full-time and two seasonal employees .

our company , but also to get people out riding and let them know when the trails are good .”

To reach other customers , the dealership recently launched Test Drive Fridays . The dealership provides brats and chips while customers test drive units from 10 a . m . to 2 p . m .

“ The Spyder [ test drive day ] went over really well . We did a side-by-side one , and it didn ’ t do much ,” Peterson says . “ You just never know what ’ s going to work and what ’ s not going to work . We ’ re going to try again and do a side-by-side day in the Winter .”

SHOP TALK Peterson is curious to see how the economy will affect the powersports industry in the

Centre Powersports & Marine was established in 2005 and is located in Sauk Centre , Minnesota .

next two years and is currently keeping an eye on interest rates and the buying habits of consumers .

Staffing in the service department has been challenging . “ Not as many young people are going in to be mechanics like they used to ,” he says . “ These machines are getting more advanced than they were 20 years ago . You really have to go to school and be trained and understand it .”

“ As far as staffing otherwise , we ’ ve been very lucky because we have a really good reputation as far as being a good place to work . We ’ ve had a number of people that stop in , asking if we ’ re hiring . It ’ s been fortunate that we ’ ve had people walk through the door and that ’ s how we ’ ve grown .”