Jack Manning was asking for a quote on a valve to be used in a motorcycle starter system that his startup company was building. That initial conversation blossomed into a deep and lasting business relationship in which Pearse Bertram has served in a comprehensive contract manufacturing role.

Enhancing vintage motorcycles

Jack, a former vice president of engineering at Lockheed Martin, is the longtime owner of Vermont-based The Classic Bike Experience which specializes in motorcycle restoration, repairs, parts and services. In 2018, Jack and his partners decided to expand their operations by forming KickMagic LLC to develop a pneumatic-assist kick starter for the vintage motorcycle market. The product, which can be installed without modifying the motorcycle, enables motorcycles to start easier and protects riders from injury due to dangerous kickbacks.

Shortly after receiving that call from Jack, Pearse Bertram’s Josh Baptiste visited KickMagic’s shop and quickly realized there was a huge opportunity to significantly transform the entire manufacturing process, from beginning to end.

Benefit of value engineering

Initially, Jack made some suggestions to help KickMagic design additional functionality into the product’s circuit board. Pearse Bertram’s role then expanded into an end-to-end contract manufacturing provider. Pearse Bertram value engineered the project – analyzing KickMagic’s bill of materials and product design, identifying components that were unnecessary or priced inefficiently and finding high quality, low cost suppliers, all with the goal of reducing overall costs.



According to Jack, “As our manufacturing partner, Pearse revamped our cost model by eliminating some components, substituting others and buying in quantity. Pearse really helped us understand what levers to pull. Our product wouldn’t have been commercially viable without Pearse because we don’t have its industrial manufacturing expertise.”

Light bulb goes on

Soon after partnering with Pearse Bertram, a “light bulb” went on in Jack’s head, he recalls. “While we were certainly comfortable handling the system engineering and shopping for industrial components ourselves, we realized that Pearse could take on the whole project including manufacturing strategy, sourcing parts, tech solutions and fulfillment,” he says. Pearse’s complete turnkey operation was the most appealing aspect of the partnership for KickMagic.



At the time, KickMagic had a skeleton engineering team consisting of a handful of engineering students at the University of Vermont who helped on a part-time basis. But the company didn’t have the staff or capacity to build thousands of the starter kits.

Pearse Bertram, on the other hand, with its extensive resources, staff, experience and warehouse space at its headquarters in Connecticut, was able to serve in a comprehensive contract manufacturing role. Thus, Pearse Bertram sourced, stocked, assembled and tested all the parts. It then packaged and labelled complete assemblies and shipped them directly to KickMagic’s customers. “At the end of the day, our team didn’t even need to pick up a wrench,” notes Jack.

The right partner makes a difference

Jack and his partners’ deep industrial experience taught them that having the right manufacturing partners made much more sense than chasing vendors, piling up inventory and working late into the night to assemble and box up product for shipping the next morning. Partnering with Pearse Bertram added credibility and enabled KickMagic to manufacture its product in a professional manner, according to Jack.

“As a contract manufacturer and industrial controls distributor, Pearse is ideally suited for our order fulfillment,” notes Jack. “Pearse has been with us every step of the way in concurrent engineering and ensuring that we specified components that are best suited for the performance requirements. It’s simple – given its status in the industry and its supplier relationships, Pearse helps ensure that the product is built correctly and shipped on time.”



And, he adds, “Our clients truly understand the value of ISO, and having an ISO certified industrial supplier like Pearse who could create our product adhering to this standard was a key factor in deciding to form our partnership. As a startup, it added instant credibility with our end-users.”

1+1=3

“With Pearse on board, it was like one plus one equals three,” says Jack. “Suddenly, with Pearse, our startup venture had a contract manufacturer who can take our product forward on multiple levels. We didn’t need to hire engineers, worry about sourcing hundreds of parts or deal with the headache of issuing purchase orders to dozens of suppliers or managing stocking, inspection, testing, receiving, shipping and quality issues. And we didn’t need to lease or buy storage space.”

Perhaps most importantly, he adds, “Pearse freed us up to focus on our core business activities – systems engineering, sales and marketing.”