polaris announces new snow division gm

Polaris Industries Inc. said today that Scott Swenson has been named general manager of its snow division. Swenson replaces Eric Lindquist who is leaving to pursue other interests.

Swenson joined Polaris in 1998 to lead the company's financial service business through Polaris Acceptance. He was promoted to general manager of parts, garments and accessories (PG&A) in May 2001 after successfully building the financial services business and delivering on key projects. Polaris says its PG&A business grew more than 30% under Swenson, from $210 million to $275 million in the last 5 years.

Swenson assumes his new duties immediately, but will continue to run the PG&A business until a successor is named. Lindquist became the snow division's general manager in November 2004. He was formerly the firm's director of consumer sales.

The moves come less than a week after Medina, Minn.-based Polaris announced its earnings dipped to $11.5 million, down 34% in the first quarter, compared to a year earlier.

Snowmobile unit sales in the quarter were $2.5 million, a 65% drop from $7.2 million a year earlier. Polaris said at the time that the decrease was due to declining overall demand, successive low snow years, higher warranty costs from past product introductions and a resulting decline in dealer confidence.

Earlier this year the company announced a more focused snowmobile model lineup with roughly half the number of models for 2007.