Parts over pastry: good move for Solid Axle exec

By Don Shilling

A local company sells axles for four-wheel-drive vehicles all over the world.

NORTH JACKSON — John Boydston doesn’t see much difference between creating a chocolate mousse for a discriminating diner and an axle assembly for a demanding driver.

After all, he’s good at both.

“You build an axle assembly the same way you make a dessert,” said Boydston, the 43-year-old president of Solid Axle Industries, 12356 Mahoning Ave.

Both require knowing how to combine components and handling the stress of a production line that doesn’t tolerate mistakes.

As a pasty chef for the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel on Public Square, his components were eggs, sugar and cream. The customers were diners who were looking for the perfect way to top off a night on the town.

At Solid Axle, his components are heavy-duty tubing, metal housings and gears. His customers are people who want to drive over rugged terrain and still make it home.

The Poland resident said the switch from the kitchen to the manufacturing floor has worked well.

“We’re still a very small company, but we’re growing rapidly,” he said.

Solid Axle, which was formed less than two years ago, recorded $850,000 in sales last year. Boydston expects to double that amount this year.

The company has seven employees, and the president plans to add two more later this year.

The company’s axles are selling so well that Boydston figures he will add an additional 10 workers and have $5 million in annual sales in two or three years.

Solid Axle traces its history to a decision that Boydston made in 2000 in give up his previous career. As a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, he enjoyed making fancy desserts during two years at a high-end resort in the Adirondack Mountains and 10 years at the Cleveland hotel.

But his desire to be a father won out.

“When you choose that career, you basically live there. I didn’t want to be an absentee father,” said the 1984 graduate of Poland Seminary High School.

He returned to the Mahoning Valley and opened car washes in Austintown, Boardman and Canfield with a partner, Glen Boras.

About the same time, he and his wife took their two young children on a vacation to Colorado, where they rented a Jeep and went on off-road trips.

When he came home, he bought a Jeep and began to tinker. Then he met some local residents who were starting a business that sold parts for four-wheel drive vehicles, and he invested in their company.

Soon after, he noticed an increasing demand for after-market axles and was introduced to an Australian company that produced them.

He formed a partnership with Danny Milton, who runs the Australian operation, to create Solid Axle.

Since the company was formed, Boydston has lined up 80 dealers across the country that sell Solid Axle products. About 30 percent of its products are sold overseas by Milton and two European distributors.

Solid Axle does some cutting and finishing work, but mostly it assembles parts that are provided by outside suppliers. Now, most of those are in Australia, but Boydston said he’s in the process of switching to all U.S. suppliers so he can reduce the time it takes to get orders filled.

His partner will focus on selling products in Asia and the Middle East.

Boydston attributed his success so far on the quality products they have developed and marketing efforts. He said some new businesses try to sell products and build up their marketing efforts as they go along, but he decided to pour cash into advertisements in off-road magazines right from the start.

“Branding our company name was a priority for us. We chose to hammer the Solid Axle name down as many throats as we could, as rapidly as we could,” he said.

Solid Axle’s typical customer is someone who already has spent about $10,000 on after-market products on wheels and other products designed to improve the look of their four-wheel drive vehicle, Boydston said. Then they begin to wonder why they are snapping axles while other drivers aren’t, Boydston said.

“They don’t want to be humiliated on the trail by their buddies,” he said.

They start educating themselves and learn how to beef up their axles. Solid Axle’s assemblies cost from $2,995 to $6,800 per axle and are an improvement because they use thick-walled tubing and components made from strong materials, Boydston said.

“That’s a serious purchase for a hobby, but they want to be able to get up the rock that their buddy can get up,” he said.