Did you hear?… Jeep Consumer Products announces partnership with NorthPole

Jeep Consumer Products has announced a partnership with NorthPole, a private label company based in Fremont, Calif., that caters to high-volume companies such as Wal-Mart, Quest, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Nike, Target, and Costco to introduce a collection of Jeep camping equipment scheduled to launch at retail in 2002. The camping collection is slated to include tents, sleeping bags, folding furniture, screenhouses, and tailgating canopies. “Jeep Consumer Products continue to deliver products which truly reflect the outdoor, adventure lifestyle long associated with the brand, and delivering great Jeep camping equipment was essential,” stated Debra Joester, President and CEO of The Joester Loria Group, the exclusive worldwide licensing agent for the Jeep brand. Targeted distribution for the inaugural 2002 collection of Jeep camping equipment includes sporting goods chains, specialty retailers and catalogs. For more information on NorthPole, see www.northpoleltd.com. SNEWS® View: Specialty distribution? We can understand sporting goods chains, but if Jeep has designs on shoehorning this brand into the specialty distribution channels, then it will need to focus its efforts on specialty production and limited specialty distribution, and that’s just not going to happen.