By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD — Power Pac, a powersports and equipment dealership, was established in 1963 by Sid Trulen, who sold mainly Scorpion snowmobiles. Mike Trulen took over ownership of the dealership in 1976 and grew the business, adding brands, such as: John Deere, Polaris, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and STIHL.

“When I took over the business, our revenue was around $250,000 and we sold and serviced mainly snowmobiles,” Mike Trulen said at the time of transition. “My dream was to grow the business my father built.”

When Mike and his wife, Cheri, sold the business, they wanted Power Pac to continue to grow and thought transitioning the company to a young couple that had the drive and vision to do so would be best. When they found the ideal couple that could nurture the business and its family environment, they sold their labor of 55 years to Josh and Mandy Witt.

“That dream continues with passing on the business to a couple Cheri and I feel has a vision for growth,” Mike added.

Josh and Mandy purchased the business in 2018. In addition to their lock the Trulens’ vision for the future of the company, the Witts came in with a background in sales and marketing.

“I spent the last decade at the state’s largest marketing agency, Bader Rutter, which is based out of Milwaukee,” Mandy explained. “Most of my clients were agriculture-based clients, having grown up on a farm, ranging from Pfizer Animal Health, Dow AgroSciences, Mycogen Seeds and Case IH. I was responsible for developing and executing yearly marketing communications plans for clients.

“Josh has spent his career in the sales and dealership space, starting at Menards and moving into a sales support role at Case IH in Racine. He transitioned to inside sales and soon after was promoted to a territory manager role overseeing 30 dealers in the Midwest. Josh worked with dealers to plan orders, contribute to business plans, analyze P&L’s and in general, just assist with dealership performance and success. After seven years with Case IH, he then took the General Manager position at a dealership in the area before taking ownership of Power Pac.”

While the Trulens found the Witts to be the ideal couple to care for the business they had created, the Witts also found Power Pac to be a perfect fit for them.

“Power Pac is a long-standing business with an extremely solid foundation,” Mandy explained. “The brands offered range from work to play, want to need, so there’s enough variety in the product lines and services to help support the bottom line throughout the year. We aren’t so niche that we only offer just powersports or just John Deere and, as a result, have to depend on certain seasonal weather or demand to help sustain the business.

“Josh and I grew up outdoors playing and working with equipment so the passion for the lines was definitely there as well.”

In addition to the solid foundation created by the Trulens, the Witts also saw the Marshfield community as the perfect place to set up shop.

“We discussed our prerequisites for the type of business we would look for and one of those prerequisites was a history of community support and the Trulens and Power Pac had that,” Mandy said. “A thriving, healthy and positive community is obviously better for business but it’s also better to raise our kids in, to work in, to shop in, to play in. We want to give back to the community that supports us. It’s something that was instilled in us from our parents and grandparents and we want to continue that legacy of giving back.”

Since taking ownership, the Witts have already completed a 16,000 square-foot addition to the current building.

“We are rebranding to bring the look, feel and voice of the Power Pac to reflect the exciting things we have in store for the business and are looking at adding product lines in the future. Our ten-year plan may even include a potential second location,” Mandy added. “From a higher level, what we see for our business is growth for the betterment of our business, the community, our team and their families. Our team is a great group of talented and passionate people. Every day we strive to do right by them because it always comes down to the fact that this business supports people and families.”

Power Pac is located at 3802 S. Central Ave., Marshfield.