Rides 4 U's Len Soled: the man who makes the industy ‘Think Rides’
AT: Ron Gustafson
Special to Amusement Today
SOMERVILLE, N.J. — Len Soled readily admits, “I don't do a great job at delegating.”
And that seems to have worked out fine for the 62-year-old president and owner of Rides 4 U, which supplies new and used equipment to operations worldwide.
During an extended interview with Amusement Today, Soled reflected on his nearly 40 years in the amusement industry.
“I'm a control freak,” he chuckled. “I handle our logistics and scheduling of technical teams and spend half of my time working on the road.”
Yet, he's quick to point out that the company's success can be attributed to a loyal group of employees — most of whom have been with him for years.
Fresh out of grad school
He got his start in the business in 1985 after obtaining a Masters of Marketing degree.
“I came out of school and immediately started looking for a job,” he reflected. “I was supported in all my endeavors by my parents and they gave me a month to relax, then my father put me to work painting the inside of the house.”
At the time, Italian ride manufacturer Zamperla was looking for marketing and sales personnel in the United States.
“I interviewed with Alberto Zamperla,” Soled said of his job hunt. The interview resulted in him accepting a position with the company, and he started working sales at industry trade shows. (Alberto Zamperla was the second-generation president of the company until his death last November at age 71.)
According to Soled, it wasn't long before it became evident that he had found his calling in the amusement industry.
“I loved it!” he emphasized. “At the same time, I was building these great relationships with so many people in the business.”
He said a unique twist during that era was that Alberto Zamperla's wife, Paola, would have her line of ceramic products set up for purchase at the ride company's trade show booths.
Soled also admitted that he was not a person content on focusing on one portion of the industry.
“I enjoyed all different segments, and I felt I could blend in with anybody,” he noted. “The park people were wonderful, and I took on all of that business, then branched out into carnivals.”
During his early years with Zamperla, Soled was single and acknowledges it helped him become a worthy road warrior to meet with prospective buyers.
“I was out 24/7 traveling and loved doing it,” he said.
Time to break away
In 1995, Soled — now married (Alexis) with a third child on the way — considered himself a seasoned veteran of the business and realized that change might very well be on the horizon.
The time with Zamperla had been exceptional, as he had built a positive reputation among many industry executives.
He had also established a relationship within the growing family entertainment center (FEC) sector of the business through a branch of Zamperla called Amusement Source, which offered turnkey solutions for indoor entertainment establishments.
“We were actually building these indoor playgrounds with ball crawls and such,” Soled said of that period. “It was really a 'hobby,' yet complementing their (Zamperla) sales at the time.”
The past decade also provided him with the opportunity to become known by “basically everyone in the industry.”
“People had started to ask me when I would start my own business,” he pointed out.
“Alexis was supportive when I decided to break out on my own. Nancy Buckley, who was also with Zamperla when I was there, left with me and formed a 50/50 partnership. We teamed up with Majestic (ride manufacturer in New Waterford, Ohio) and also got together with SBF/Visa (Italian ride builder) and that was the original start-up of Rides 4 U.”
No peaceful,
easy feeling
While parting ways came with some emotional anxiety, it was amicable as Alberto Zamperla threw Soled a going-away party.
“I always believed that we needed to do things right, and we did. But after leaving Zamperla, I was afraid it would be short-lived, and I would find myself out of the industry. I didn't need to make a million dollars — I just wanted to stick it out and make it happen,” he said of the venture
The tensions were soon eased when Len and Alexis attended a New Jersey Amusement Association dinner.
“I was fearful we would find ourselves sitting alone,” he recalled of the event. “The next thing I know, Roy Gillian (Gillian's Wonderland Pier) and Bobby Bennett (Casino Pier) led us to their table and said they wanted to see us succeed. That really started the ball rolling.”
Both Gillian and Bennett shared their interest in Soled's new and used ride markets and offered some recommendations to him.
That kick-start apparently paved the way for Rides 4 U to become the amusement industry force it is today, now fully owned by Len and Alexis Soled following Buckley's retirement in 2012.
Count the years
This marks the 29th year for the company, and Soled is quick to point out that the success all revolves around the loyalty of his personnel.
He emphasized the importance of having good people onboard, saying: “We have eight people in-house who have been here for years, a couple of satellite sales staff and around a dozen subcontractors. When I need them (contractors), they drop everything to get on our job.”
Key players at the company include Rich Madden, Earl Heller, Stephanie Magnani, Annie Bauer, Dori Horvath, Joe Migueles and Mark Blumhagen.
Rides 4 U's physical presence in New Jersey has also grown over the past 15 years with the construction of a new building.
“We are set up as strong as a manufacturer,” Soled said of the facility. “We have a huge spare parts department and carry in excess of $1 million in inventory. We don't want to have to tell a customer, ‘We're sorry, we don't have that part.'”
He continued, saying: “Operators can't afford to have rides down. A lot of times, I have to get involved to expedite service, and we are constantly working on better inventory control to those ends.”
Getting through
the pandemic
The entire industry struggled to get through the COVID pandemic, which was declared a worldwide health emergency in January of 2020.
Rides 4 U managed to keep its head above water with bare-bones staffing.
“It was just me and Annie (Bauer) running the company,” he asserted. “She was in parts and I handled the office.”
Despite the economic downturn caused by the crisis, more than a dozen rides were sold by Soled during the pandemic, and the company emerged on a solid footing.
Post-pandemic, the amusement industry — like many others — has had issues fully ramping up again.
“For us as distributors, the supply chain and cost of product are among the big challenges now,” he pointed out. “We've never experienced having such a hard time getting spare parts, and shipping costs have gone through the roof.”
Another headache related to shipping is getting equipment into a favorable port of entry, which was not the case prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Playing the field
SFB/Visa remains one of the top product lines represented in North America by Rides 4 U. The Italian ride builder has a portfolio of dozens of attractions from children's rides to large roller coasters. Among the most popular current attractions are small footprint spinning coasters, Drop'N Twist Towers and Dance Party pendulums.
KMG of the Netherlands is another supplier of spectacular attractions with its large pendulum series the most prevalent at parks and on carnival midways in the United States.
Rides 4 U has also worked with S&S Worldwide, Logan, Utah; Chance Rides, Wichita, Kansas; Wisdom Rides of America, Merino, Colorado; E&F Miler Industries, Portland, Oregon and others.
As for presenting at industry trade shows, “We have one of the largest exhibits at IAAPA Expo,” Soled said of the annual November gathering in Orlando, Florida. With more than 36,000 attending the 2022 event, it is by far the best location for Rides 4 U to show its wares.
Such expos are critical for the business, as it encourages face-to-face conversations with qualified buyers, he pointed out.
“It allows me the ability to sit down and talk to people and provide them with the perfect piece for their company,” he commented.
Not only have parks invested heavily in new equipment in recent years, but the FEC market is also strong.
“We have the ideal ride products for FECs,” Soled noted.
Taking on the
challenges
When the National Football League decided to throw a Super Bowl party in New York's Times Square in 2014, Rides 4 U got involved in the plans.
“I took on a huge challenge,” Soled explained. “We got a giant eight-lane slide from SFB/Visa and it was the first time we had exhibited a piece in that kind of (cold) climate. One morning we woke up with snow and ice and had to run heaters under it to get it operational.”
While Rides 4 U managed the attraction, Soled had a number of friends from North American Midway Entertainment (NAME) assist in operations.
“We had it sold before the end of the event,” he said, and today the slide is at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa.
And Soled was quick to point out that he works closely with the factories when new products are launched.
A prime example was the spinning coaster from SFB/Visa. “We presented some extra ideas related to the design and they worked. The ride has been a home run,” he said of the process. “Our signature appears at parks and carnivals throughout the world.”
Big change in new gear
Among notable advancements in ride technology is that most of today's new rides operate with the use of a PLC (programmable logic control). These industrial computers are designed for the long haul and are readily found on robotic devices and other machinery that require high reliability.
Soled stressed that they are ideal for the amusement industry because of the ease of programming and fault diagnosis processing.
“Thankfully, this technology allows for the factory to troubleshoot remotely, which saves operators time and money,” he emphasized.
Old is new again
The used equipment market is also a big one for Soled and company.
“We need the used ride market as dealing with a used piece can parlay into another sale of a new ride,” he said of the process. “Sometimes, we do just a listing of a used ride for a client, and it is not unusual for us to have up to two dozen rides warehoused, which is a challenge.”
Offering used equipment has another plus side as it allows Soled and his family to travel worldwide.
And when talking with Soled on any occasion, it's likely he'll strike up a conversation about the amusement industry — the business he is so passionate about.
After all, this is the guy who coined the two-word phrase “Think Rides!”
rides4u.com
