2/7/11
The Weekly What If...Chronicling companies that transformed their business by Exploring What if
Today’s biggest boat retailer was organized around this What If.
Today, Marine Max is America’ largest boating and yachting retailer with over 50 locations in 19 states. In 2004, I interviewed company, CEO and Chairman Bill McGill and was surprised to learn more about their history. Mr. McGill, an engineer by background, owned and ran a successful single location boat dealership in St. Petersburg Florida. In 1997, Mr. McGill and a handful of other successful dealers were approached by a private equity firm that pitched the idea of consolidating their dealerships into a single company then going public. This strategy would likely provide them a higher valuation as a public company and the opportunity for owners to get liquidity with public stock. Also, a consolidation would allow the businesses to develop new services and coordinated offerings that would be enticing to its boating lifestyle customers. As talks progressed however, it became apparent that the private equity’s interest in the future valuation of the business was starting to outweigh the owner’s desire to build a business with more attractive product and service offering.
Taking matters into their own hands, the owners then explored a new direction. What if, we consolidate and go public on our own and that’s exactly what they did, when Marine Max debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in June 1998. Today, Marine Max is America’s largest boat retailer and he credits part of their success in the face of challenging economies and aggressive competition to their continued focus on the needs of the customers and a long term strategy of building a quality organization over by a quick monetary gain.
(Source: interview with CEO and Company website)
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Weekly What If: Chronicling Companies that transformed their business by Exploring What If
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What If - Weekly What If Lantern Capital Advisors
The following are blog postings from our Weekly What If Series
What If: Owners Take Liquidity Now?
What If: Buy Out Business Partner?
What If: We Could Test The Market?
What If: We Change Revenue Model?
What If We Consolidate On Our Own
What If We Eliminate Late Fees
Asking What If: The Rules Of Cheese Moving
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Lantern Capital Advisors helps growing profitable businesses develop comprehensive business plans and strategies that achieve financing from a variety of institutional lenders and sources. The following are blog entries related to business planning and strategic planning written by Lantern Capital Advisors.
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About Lantern Capital Advisors
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