Transamerican Manufacturing Group Announces Acquisition of Poison Spyder Customs

Homestead said:
There was an announcement a month or two ago on The Poison Spider Youtube channel with Larry announcing that he is stepping down and back from operations to fight his cancer diagnosis.

Maybe it is worse than suspected and it was time to look at his families best interest and this was the route they took. At the same time, money talks so who really knows.

Like I mentioned, I thought it was their YouTube channel but I will post the link if I can find it.

Jeff
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I thought too that I heard he had cancer. You sometimes have to make tough business decisions, or maybe he just got an offer he couldn't refuse
 
Hmmmm.... I was waiting to see what changes they were going to make to their sport cage. Sounded like it was going to have similar frame tie-ins for the windshield to the old OR-Fab cage. No telling if they are going to fix their design now... more likely it will end up worse, or they'll scrap it entirely so they can sell more of the Shittybilt cages.

The press release does say that they're keeping production in the US, but I'll believe that when I see it...
 
Well its been a hard secret to keep, with rumors flying for the past few weeks. But the press release came out today so its official: Poison Spyder has been bought by Transamerican, the parent company of 4 Wheel Parts. As we're gearing up for King Of the Hammers, we know this news will be competing with anything we're doing on the race course, so we wanted to let you, our fans, customers, friends and distributors know what's going on and address some of your concerns.

First of all, I (Larry McRae), am not going anywhere. I'm staying on as President of Poison Spyder, the only difference is that Greg Adler's signature will be on my paycheck instead of my own. The same with our staff,… Continue Reading


......from the PS Facebook page.
 
Wardell said:
Hmmmm.... I was waiting to see what changes they were going to make to their sport cage. Sounded like it was going to have similar frame tie-ins for the windshield to the old OR-Fab cage. No telling if they are going to fix their design now... more likely it will end up worse, or they'll scrap it entirely so they can sell more of the Shittybilt cages.

The press release does say that they're keeping production in the US, but I'll believe that when I see it...
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I was waiting for the same thing. Now not sure what I'm gonna do for a sports cage cause PSC redesign seemed promising. Expedition one will be my rear bumper and topics carrier now. Maybe it truely won't go to sh't but we'll see.
 
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I wish the best to Larry and his family in his fight with cancer, that was sad to hear, and I hope he can beat it into remission. I have a few PSC items on my heep, I am very pleased with the quality, and there service was second to none. I got a bumper from Northridge that was mis-boxed from PSC, after one 5 minute phone call, I had the correct bumper coming from PSC direct with a call tag for the incorrect bumper, no questions asked! They were great to deal with.

I would venture to guess service like that will not be the norm soon. I hate to see this acquisition by 4wp, I'm sorry to say but my very few dealings with them have been a joke! And they of course push their proprietary poor quality brands. I can hope for the best I guess, but I'm not holding my breath. I will not support that company.
 
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It says all production is staying the same.......even the same place. Every one calm down and Poison Spyder ON.
 
Armydog posted some of it, but here's the full announcement from PS' Facebook page:

Well its been a hard secret to keep, with rumors flying for the past few weeks. But the press release came out today so its official: Poison Spyder has been bought by Transamerican, the parent company of 4 Wheel Parts. As we're gearing up for King Of the Hammers, we know this news will be competing with anything we're doing on the race course, so we wanted to let you, our fans, customers, friends and distributors know what's going on and address some of your concerns.

First of all, I (Larry McRae), am not going anywhere. I'm staying on as President of Poison Spyder, the only difference is that Greg Adler's signature will be on my paycheck instead of my own. The same with our staff, everyone is staying put, in fact we'll be adding more. The team that got Poison Spyder to where it is today is what Transamerican was after, and they intend to keep it intact. We'll continue to do our own product development, sales, marketing, and of course traveling the country to events to meet and wheel with you guys. And very importantly, our products will continue to be built in the same Poison Spyder facilities in Banning, California.

So what IS going to change? The biggest thing is we'll now have access to Transamerican's considerable resources to fuel our growth, keep the shelves full and expand our product lines. And through their distribution channels we'll be able to bring Poison Spyder products to a larger market. But for the most part, Poison Spyder will continue to function mostly autonomously. Those of you who like buying direct from Poison Spyder will still be able to do so.

Over the coming week we're going to have our hands full out here at King Of the Hammers, so its not the most convenient time for this news to break. But we welcome your thoughts on this. Please feel free to contact any of our staff through the usual channels, or comment below if you prefer. We'll try to keep up with responses even though we've got a race to run in a few days (against our new boss, among others).

Larry McRae
President, Poison Spyder Customs
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The thing is, it's hard to really know how much autonomy they will really keep when this is all said and done. Transamerican and it's subsidiaries don't have a good track record of quality or customer service like Poison Spider does, which is why it's easy to second guess some of the things that are being clearly stated and jump to conclusions. I can only hope that they bought this Poison Spider because they were looking to add a higher quality product line to their company, and that they're smart enough not to mess their successful product line or business model. I suppose time will tell though.

I do notice that it says Larry McRae is staying on as President, so I hope that's a sign that the sale has nothing to do with his health and that his fight with cancer is going in his favour. Regardless of what happens with his business, I hope he is well and makes a full recovery.
 
When will they start building PSC products in China and start slapping a Poison Spyder logo on it? It's bound to happen. My bet is within the next 9 months.
 
Wardell said:
Armydog posted some of it, but here's the full announcement from PS' Facebook page:



The thing is, it's hard to really know how much autonomy they will really keep when this is all said and done. Transamerican and it's subsidiaries don't have a good track record of quality or customer service like Poison Spider does, which is why it's easy to second guess some of the things that are being clearly stated and jump to conclusions. I can only hope that they bought this Poison Spider because they were looking to add a higher quality product line to their company, and that they're smart enough not to mess their successful product line or business model. I suppose time will tell though.

I do notice that it says Larry McRae is staying on as President, so I hope that's a sign that the sale has nothing to do with his health and that his fight with cancer is going in his favour. Regardless of what happens with his business, I hope he is well and makes a full recovery.
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Tango for the backup brother. I. Could not get the whole press release to copy and paste. I sure hope #GOLARRY is winning. It will be sad to see a great company go the way of terra-junk and shitty-built....
 
I believe Larry McRae is shooting straight with his customer base, but for those of us who have been in takeover situations we know the landscape can change very fast. Time will tell.
 
Wardell said:
Hmmmm.... I was waiting to see what changes they were going to make to their sport cage. Sounded like it was going to have similar frame tie-ins for the windshield to the old OR-Fab cage. No telling if they are going to fix their design now... more likely it will end up worse, or they'll scrap it entirely so they can sell more of the Shittybilt cages.

The press release does say that they're keeping production in the US, but I'll believe that when I see it...
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Wardell, I have been researching cages and I am ordering most of my parts from Eric Johnson with Northridge4x4. He suggested the Poison Spyder trail cage. When I mentioned the reports of noise / squeaking he recommend a "Cage Tie in Kit" they sell for about $75 which they have found has eliminated those problems. (I believe he said it was for around the windshield)

Based on this news / release, I may be ordering the cage and tie in kit sooner than later before there is any possible change in quality.
 
^^^^^ Yup. Good intentions and necessity don't change what a corporate giant can and most likely will do to a great company. Walmart-itus strikes yet again. Hope I'm off base on this one
 
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