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FIRED UP: The Forge LLC builds about 300 motorcycle parts annually from its Pleasant Hope shop with more than $80,000 in projected 2016 revenue.
FIRED UP: The Forge LLC builds about 300 motorcycle parts annually from its Pleasant Hope shop with more than $80,000 in projected 2016 revenue.

Business Spotlight: Bring the Heat

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It is a bond forged in steel and bolstered by brotherhood.

The Forge LLC, a military veteran-owned and -operated custom motorcycle parts fabrication company, was started by Joe Iannarone three years ago. But he’ll tell you, it actually was inspired by his 5-year-old son.

A longtime motorcycle enthusiast, Iannarone wanted to take his son on short tours of the neighborhood. He couldn’t afford the parts to create a safer ride, so he made them. Iannarone built a custom sissy bar – lingo for a backrest – and a peg relocation kit so his son’s legs could reach, with a tiny welder in the garage of a rented duplex.

People noticed, and liked, his conversions. So he began creating parts  and selling them directly to customers, on eBay and eventually on his website.

He then expanded into highway guards and now owns a historic building in Pleasant Hope with 3,500 square feet of shop space and about 1,000 square feet of newly opened retail space.

The extra room was needed, and he held out for two years until finding the building.

“It got to the point where I had sissy bars stacked up against the walls of my living room, and I was having to peak around boxes just to watch TV,” he recalls, before moving to commercial space last year.



Next, he struggled with finding the right employee until four months ago, when he contacted veterans representative Alan Smith, who has since retired from the Missouri Career Center. Smith helped Iannarone, a veteran of the Air Force, get his first job out of college. Iannarone says the required discipline and attention to detail was almost impossible to find but necessary in the fabrication of custom motorcycle parts. A rural location didn’t help.

At the time, Johnathon DeHart of the 75th Ranger Regiment had just moved back to the area from upstate New York. He was seeking a job and as a Motorcycle Mechanic Institute graduate with certification in Harley Davidson models, Smith saw a mutually beneficial situation.

“Al called me and said, ‘You need to get ahold of Joe. He’s looking for you!’” DeHart recalls.

He was hired quickly.

“It’s not often you get to bend steel like Superman,” DeHart quips.

Iannarone and DeHart agree the brotherhood of military life produces trust and a feeling of having someone in your corner. It’s sometimes lost in the transition to the civilian world.

“Having other veterans around, it does give you a small measure of comfort,” Iannarone says.

In the shop, the guys cut and mold raw metal heated by torch, then trim and grind it to shape and weld together into an artistic and functional bolt-on piece. The company creates about 300 handlebars, highway bars and sissy bars per year and ships them worldwide, to Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and across the Americas.

The Forge recently created a twisted metal sissy bar with a luggage rack and has done about $15,000 worth in customization on one motorcycle. The guys also build complete custom motorcycles.

Yet, the company has garnered little local attention. Iannarone says that is changing with a newly stocked retail space. He plans to participate in bike rallies for some guerilla marketing, too.

“Last year, we did about $60,000. This year, we’re on track to make $80,000 to $100,000,” he says. “Next year, with the front [retail] shop open and bigger pushes we’ve been making on Facebook, through marketing, advertising and stuff like that, I think we’re probably going to double our business – probably around $200,000. We’re ready to crank things out.”

Iannarone has reinvested in the company, upgrading equipment and ensuring work that had been outsourced can now be handled in-house.

Springfield Powder Coating in Ozark used to handle powder coating for the shop until Iannarone purchased his own oven. The Forge oven can handle items 6-by-4-feet in any color.

For designing skull patterns, Iannarone recently acquired a plasma cutter. He’ll also outsource more detailed laser work and steel cutting to Yarbrough Industries.

Nate Weikle of Roanoke, Va., discovered The Forge on eBay. He ordered a $200 sissy bar for his 2015 Harley Davidson Softail Slim in July. The shipment, which he expected to take 10 days, arrived in three.

“They nailed the look I wanted,” Weikle says. “It’s like they made it just for my bike.”

He plans on ordering handlebars soon.

Iannarone also upgraded his welding machine from a small 130-amperes welder to a Lincoln Square Wave Tig 255 – which he describes as going from a Volkswagen Beetle to a Maserati.

Iannarone says the past three years have not been easy. He had to figure out every aspect of the business.

“From the type of boxes to get, to the type of packing material to get, and analyzing the cost difference between Styrofoam packing peanuts and paper,” he says. “Does that sound like a lot of fun? Not really. There is a lot that goes along with it. It is hard work and you will spend a lot of hours doing it.”

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