LUND

About:
Allan W. Lund, an entrepreneur highly skilled in the design of fiberglass products, founded Lund in 1965. Prior to producing accessories for the truck market, Allan Lund was a teacher and insurance salesman. He began producing prototype work for snowmobile, boat, and other recreational vehicle makers and started making sun visors in a Coon Rapids, Minnesota chicken barn in 1974. The Lund SunVisor attached to the cab of a truck, creating a "baseball cap" for trucks. By the late 1970s, as light truck sales increased, the company began producing appearance accessories for light trucks. Lund's second product was a cab spoiler. An authorized dealer program was established to sell products through auto parts stores, auto body and trim stores and car washes. Dealer-expediters, who customize new trucks before they leave the lot, significantly boosted product sales. The company soon expanded to offer 20 additional product lines, including bug shields, fender extensions and grill inserts. One of the company's fastest growing products from this period was running boards, a product that quickly caught on with women, who found them helpful for getting in and out of trucks. Lund packages became so popular, people began asking for the "Lund look" by name. In the winter of 1997, Lund signed a merger agreement to acquire Deflecta-Shield Corporation of Indianola, Iowa, thereby forming Lund International which manufactured and marketed a portfolio of product from hood shields, running boards, side window deflectors and covers, and visors, to tonneau covers, storage boxes and truck bed protection. The company grew quickly and continued to expand, acquiring Belmor, a manufacturer of specialty accessories for the heavy duty trucking industry, in 1997.