INDUSTRY 411

INDUSTRY 411 Elka Suspension

ATV WORLD Magazine sits down with Elka

Elka Suspensions was originally established by two brothers, Martin and Jean-Francois Lamoureux and their friend Marc-Andre Kingsley. The trio opened the doors to Elke Suspensions in September 2000.

Before the trio were manufacturing shocks, the Lamoureux brothers were only rebuilding dirt bike shocks and Kingsley focused more on the financial/office aspects of the business.

The three came up with the idea that there was an enormous market if they were to create and sell their own brand of shock absorber.

The original company name was “LK”, simply the first letter of each of their last names (Lamoureux and Kingsley). The renamed the company “Elka” quickly after naming it “LK”. The reasoning was simple; in the French language and many other languages around the world, “LK” is pronounced Elka. The founders of the company preferred both the spelling and the pronunciation of “Elka”, and they went with it.

Their first shock absorbers that they were selling were only for sport model ATVs. As Elka’s market share grew, the owners attributed the success to the three main pillars of the company; quality products, fast delivery times and personalized customer service.

In the beginning, the Elka Suspension facility consisted of the three-man team in a 2,000 square foot garage in

Boucherville, QC. There was no job too small. They would all answer the phones, take orders, machine the parts, and custom build the shocks to the rider’s requested specifications. Elka’s market share grew quickly, which forced their hand to expand the company. By 2004, given that they experienced a larger than expected growth over the first four years, the head office had to relocate to a larger office space and Elka moved to a larger facility, but kept a Boucherville, QC address.

To this point in Elka’s history, the feeling was that a lot of the increased sales up until 2004, was attributed to international race sponsorships. Elka was sponsoring ATV Racers such as William Yokley, Chad Duvall, Doug Gust, Doug Eichner, Wayne Matlock and multiple time Canadian champ, Richard Pelchat. Over these years, Elka has sponsored racers that have had numerous race wins and championship titles like the Score Baja 1000, Grand National CrossCountry (GNCC), AMA ATV-MX, the Dakar Rally and many more.

Elka never lost their recipe for success, and has kept close to this winning formula of sponsoring high profile riders to this day. Reigning champions Beau Baron (WORCS Pro ATV & SxS), Joel Hetrick (AMA ATV-MX), brothers Cody and Hunter Miller (King of the Hammers) and Mike Cafro (Score Baja) are all sponsored by Elka Suspensions.

More Diversity = More Contracts = Bigger Company

By the mid 2000s, Elka made the move to diversify itself from the ‘sport only’ ATVS, to also include sport utility ATVs, side-by-sides and sport motorcycles. The side-by-side market was a very interesting segment for Elka as they transformed a relatively stiff-riding utility vehicle into a very comfortable machine, and later adapted this technology into the massive sport and racing side-by-side class of vehicle.

Further diversification was welcomed in 2007 with the addition of shock absorbers for snowmobiles, and also in 2010 with the Can-Am Spyder. Since then, Elka stayed on the fuel, securing military and para-military contracts and contracts from Arctic Cat (Wildcat X Limited, Wildcat Trail, Wildcat 4), domestic importers of CF Moto (Canada and Russia) and Intimidator Side-by-Side vehicles.

A natural new segment was found by the company’s executives in 2017; shock absorbers (both on and off-road) for light trucks. This new market would offer the greatest market depth, with the potential to be larger than all of its powersports markets combined.

Immediately, Elka started manufacturing shocks for the Toyota Tacoma and the 4Runner. By 2019, an American company, Toytec was relying on Elka to provide their high-volume shock absorbers. After this partnership with Toytec, their light truck shock orders exploded. More lift kit manufacturers contacted Elka, and the light truck line-up expanded to include Ford, Nissan, Ram, Chevrolet and GMC trucks.

Not surprisingly, by 2020, the platform of products for trucks has continued to grow, outpacing powersports, and now the truck line-up also includes a line of shocks for Jeep.

Today, Elka distributes around the world, and has more than 50 employees employed at Elka’s head office in R&D, purchasing, production, sales, marketing, administration and human resources. Through the years, Elka remains true to its original mission: to provide the ultimate ride experience to powersports and automotive enthusiasts through shock absorbers, adapted and calibrated for their vehicle’s geometry.