Karen Blackburn has been promoted to senior purchasing officer at Kangaroo Golf and Condar Company, manufacturing enterprises co-managed in the same Columbus factory on Hwy. 108 East.

Blackburn joined Kangaroo in 1990 where she has held positions in production, repairs of the motorcaddies, shipping, and later in sales and supply-chain management. She is a native of Columbus and a graduate of Tryon High School.

Blackburn was most recently the purchasing manager for Condar’s line of equipment and accessories for the woodstove and fireplace industry.

Timothy Williams has been promoted to product development manager at Kangaroo and Condar.  He is a member of  Tryon Country Club and has long experience in the woodstove industry as well, coming to Tryon a year ago from New Hampshire where he was with a distributor, and earlier in retail at a woodstove shop. Williams is a native of Dover, N.H. and now resides in Tryon.

In his new role he replaces Timothy R. Pope, long-time senior vice president at Kangaroo and Condar, who retired from the firm in 2016. Besides his new responsibilities for managing engineering and product-improvement projects,  Williams continues to have charge of warehousing and shipping functions and is involved in sales and marketing for both Condar and Kangaroo product lines.

Kangaroo was founded in Polk County in 1972, and is the only American manufacturer of motorcaddies, electric self-propelled golf bag carriers for walking golfers. Condar Company was founded in the 1970s in Ohio. After its acquisition by Kangaroo’s owners in 1996 it was moved to North Carolina, into Kangaroo’s plant to add a counter-seasonal business.

– article submitted by Michael McCue