Al’s Has the Snowmobile Biz Cold, Even in Summer

Need a new belly pan or some carbide skegs? Al’s can take care of that. Want those paddle cleats shipped to Iceland or Chile? Al’s does that too.

From a warehouse in Coventry, Al’s Snowmobile Parts Warehouse sends used nose cones, skid plates and just about anything else snowmobilers need to get their machines working to all 50 states and halfway around the world.

Al’s started out as a family business in the backyard. In some ways, it still is; founder Al Briere himself lives in an A-frame across from the warehouse, his backyard filled with snowmobiles ready to be cannibalized for parts.

But this family business has a Web page on the Internet now, so shoppers can order parts by computer. It’s got six telephone lines to take orders from places like Newfoundland, Alaska, Michigan and Chile. And lined up in the fields, propped up against walls and tree stumps, and stacked on shelves in a 15,000-foot hillside warehouse are an estimated 10,000 snowmobile parts and products.

“We can ship all over the world from out here in the middle of nowhere,” said Patrick Martell, Al’s son-in-law and a manager in his business.

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The global nature of the business means Al’s has work even as the snow melts in Vermont. After all, in Argentina, “they have their winter when we have our summer,” Martell said.

Many orders come from riders who have shredded their runners on gravel or lost their sleds to rot.

It helps that a lot of snowmobile models have become obsolete in recent years. In the 1970s, about 130 companies made snowmobiles, said Drew Casey, editor of Snowmobile magazine in Minneapolis. Now there are only four domestic makers: Polaris, Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo and Yamaha.

“There were seasons with really low snowfall, and then the recession and the gas shortages really hurt the industry,” Casey said. “There was a lot of consolidation. The guys that survived are the biggest.”

But riders and collectors still need hoods, chains, crankcases and mufflers for their out-of-production Evinrudes, Scorpions and Alouette machines in places like Iceland, Sweden and Singapore.

Yes, Singapore.

“The people over there do ride in other parts of the world,” said Martell, who believes callers from that tropical island might be people who keep sleds at vacation homes in northern countries.

But he doesn’t ask.

“All I know is when the phone rings and somebody needs a part, we just fill their order, and that’s it,” he said.

During its peak months in winter, Al’s employs about 20 snowmobile mechanics, salespeople and others. During the summer, that number drops to about 10 or so, including Al’s wife, Elaine, and daughter Denise. Then, most business comes from overseas or from people seeking parts for their all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes or watercraft.

Al’s also sells complete used snowmobiles, including some antiques, and oversees the stripping of seven to 10 a day, Martell said. Rows and rows of used machines sit in a field called “the boneyard.” What they can’t sell, a scrap dealer collects.

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Grateful snowmobilers whose machines have fallen victim to careless driving, gravel or just old age write letters of thanks for hard-to-find parts.

“In a lot of those other countries they don’t have the newer sleds, so they have to find used parts,” Denise Martell said. Other people who restore and collect old snowmobiles also have to look hard for spares.

“When they find them, they’re usually really happy. They’re willing to pay anything for them,” she said.