PSE: An Arizona Success Story

 Research, development, design, manufacturing, marketing and retail sales.  Wow, sounds like a business major’s college career. If our business student went to U of A, he/she would only need to go downtown to study all of these concepts and see a practical application all at one company.  It is PSE, the world’s largest manufacturer of archery equipment.

In 1970 Pete Shepley would spend his lunch hours dreaming up innovative designs for archery equipment. He experimented with bow release aids and designed plastic arrow vanes.  A few years later he introduced his first compound bow to Indiana archers during a tournament. In three weeks he had orders for 900 bows. Today the company holds twenty archery-related patents and Pete spends all of his time developing compound bows and accessories.  

Many of Arizona’s residents are “Midwestern transplants” and in 1982 Pete moved his company from Mahomet Illinois to Tucson. The whole company, including the employees moved to the new location.

The new digs almost encompass an entire city block in central Tucson.  The state of the art 120,000 feet manufacturing and warehousing facility trucks in raw material on one side and ships finished product on the other. PSE was one of the first companies to machine bow risers and accessories from solid aluminum, using a new four stage forging process. 

Maybe our student is leaning towards a marketing career. At PSE there is a digital photo studio where nine videotapes have been made to help archers learn to take full advantage of their new archery equipment. Then there are the PSE Archery Express Trucks. An eighteen wheel mobile show room. These rigs have 300 scheduled stops every year bringing PSE’s product line to the public. The most recent addition to PSE is a 100-meter outdoor range, which is FITA/Olympic qualified.

The retail pro shop at the facility offers the entire line of PSE products. There is also a Dealer School that was initiated in 1989. PSE wants to make sure that the sales team understands all aspects of its products and there are 2400 graduates out there to date. 

  In March of this year PSE went to their first Safari Club International Convention. Pete Shepley presented former President Bush with a Mach-11 bow.

   “It was a pure thrill to meet former President Bush and show him his new bow. Certainly a highlight of my life and career in archery!”, said Pete after the meeting. “Mr. Bush was as gracious and personable as anybody I’ve ever met. It was a great experience.”

Business majors would learn a lot studying this Arizona company but archers around the world are profiting from PSE’s business savvy.

 Linda Dightmon

Team AZOD