International Product Development

International Product Development, more commonly known as IPD or IPDUSA, is an automotive aftermarket company that manufactures and sells high-performance upgrade components for Volvo brand automobiles. iPd was started in 1963, by two friends, (Richard Gordon and Garry Small), who worked at an import car dealer. The business was originally called Import Parts and Service. Due to business issues around purchasing parts wholesale, the partners divided the business between service and parts. Garry Small lead the service portion under the name Import Service Center and Richard Gordon lead the parts area under Import Parts Distributing.

The original makeup of the parts business was English Ford, Triumph, Volkswagen and Volvo. Due to sponsorship of a Volvo race car and then competing personally in autocross and sports car racing, the need for high performance parts became urgent. A small collection of race-worthy components followed and Richard put together a catalog to capitalize on product uniqueness. The first catalog was 10 pages long and assembled from typewritten pages, Polaroid pictures and some clip-art.

The business was primarily locally focused until 1971 when Road & Track magazine did an article on performance products for imported cars. IPD was mentioned and national marketing began. Then in 1974 Road & Track in their June issue did a comparison test between the IPD project car and one from Volvo of America. Since that time IPD truly has been a national business. Continued growth lead to international business and in 1996 the dba of International Product Development was added.

The company is based in Portland, Oregon.

External links

• http://ipdusa.com