In a company culture where everyone takes ownership, FB Marine Group has grown into a marine industry powerhouse. words Matt Trulio photos courtesy FB Marine Group
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all it karma, paying it forward, fate or even old-fashioned blind luck, good things have a way of coming full circle for good people. Take the case of Richie Powers, the director of business development of FB Marine Group, which is headquartered in Pompano Beach, Fla. Back in 2008, the famed seven-time offshore powerboat racing world champion was a 60-something-year-old looking for a job. Despite his marine industry credentials, his prospects for gainful employment in the business were less than great given his age. “And then one day I got a call from Randy Sweers of what was then Fastboats.com,” Powers said. “He said, ‘You need to come up here and talk to me. I need your help building a powerhouse.’ That was 10 years ago. So Randy bailed out this seven-time world champion powerboat racer.” Powers took a second to pause, then laughed and started up again. “Between Randy and Kim, his wife, they have done an amazing job staying alive and thriving in the industry,” he continued. “They survived the crisis when boat companies and other marine companies were going out of business by being true and honest. And now, I think, it is coming back ten-fold for them.” That Sweers hired Powers, now 71 years old, is poetic justice as Powers gave Sweers his first job in the high-performance marine industry at Aventura, Fla.-based Champion Marine in 1989. Champion was a full-service dealership with its own service center, and the company carried the Cigarette Racing Team, Skater Powerboats and Wellcraft lines. Powers was the company’s general manager.
A native of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, Sweers was working out of what he described as the “tiny, smoky” office of America’s Yacht Sale in Miami. He was less-than-enchanted with the job. So on his way home from work one day he stopped by the new Champion location. Powers immediately liked what he saw and heard and decided to take a chance on the “great big lanky” Canadian, a former motorcycle racer and college basketball player who prior to his yachts sales gig had been importing powerboats and automobiles into Canada. Sweers, who first
For Kim and Randy Sweers and their beloved son, Chase, FB Marine Group is as much of a family business as an expression of what they value as a family. And the same goes for their offshore powerboat racing efforts (below).
FB Marine Group moved to the United States in 1977 but returned to Canada from 1984 to 1989 to play hoops and earn a college degree via his basketball scholarship, also liked what he saw. And his enthusiasm and drive were obvious to Powers. “I said, ‘What the hell, I’ll give him a shot,’” Powers said. “So I gave him a ride in 24 Skater with 2.5-liter outboards. I think that got his attention.” “Now Richie works with me,” Sweers said. “I personally hold him responsible for getting me into the boat business.” Sweers also quickly caught the attention of Craig Barrie, the general manager of nearby Cigarette Racing Team at the time. “The key to Randy is passion and dedication, those are the right words to describe him,” Barrie said. “In the Cigarette days, he was very, very dedicated to the brand. And when he went on his own as a dealer and took on Nor-Tech, he was dedicated to that brand. That passion was paralleled when he took on Donzi and now with Statement Marine. Randy believes he is the brand and is continually making suggestions to improve the products he sells, the companies that builds them and his customers.” Today, FB Marine Group, which is owned by managing partners Kim and Randy Sweers, is a full-service Statement Marine, Contender, Mercury, Yamaha, Suzuki and Volvo dealership that offers pre-owned sales, brokerage, in-house fiberglass and paint repair, and a complete parts and service department. The company also is a Mercury Premium Platinum dealer—the Fond du Lac, Wis., engine accessories giant’s highest designation—and a Yamaha outboard dealer. And with the acquisition of Shield Marine earlier this year, the company has added yacht concierge and asset management to its array of services. By design in 2012, FB Marine Group moved away from its original Fastboats.com moniker
they embraced in 2002—Randy and Kim Sweers recognized the power of the Internet at a time when most industry companies were fighting it. The change reflected an expansion of the business into the mainstream center console and brokerage markets, as well as into lucrative service contracts with government agencies such as Miami Dade County and City of Miami, among many others. Much of the credit for the expansion can be credited to Kim Sweers, who came on board with the company in 2002 after working in what she and her husband describe as working in “corporate America” for a Miami-based data service provider establishing networks in South
While the FB Marine Group-backed MTI raceboat has been backed by several sponsors throughout the years, the AutoNation Cure Bowl has become a constant.
America. Where Randy, who holds a graduate degree in business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Kitchener, Ontario, brought exceptional sales skills to the game, Kim had longer-range vision and organizational skills rooted in her belief that creating a proper culture within any company is the most important factor for long term success—second to the overall business model. “When Kim first started to become involved in 2002, she asked me if I had an employee handbook,” Randy said. “I said, ‘Not really. Do I need one?’ I had about three employees.” Together, Randy and Kim Sweers also were quick to recognize the changing marine business
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Regardless of sponsors, the Sweers’ MTI catamaran always will be a moving billboard supporting breast cancer awareness, research and treatment.
climate and what was needed for the company’s sustainability. In 2009, FB Marine Group made a full-scale change into the service side of the powerboat world. While the company still offered sales, service became its bread-and-butter for several years, and still remains a significant profit center. The tough decision to reduce its sales force to add service technicians turned out to be a savvy move that, to some degree, hedged against an economic downtown. “We call our clients our ‘external customers’ and our employees our ‘internal customers,” said Kim. “FB Marine Group is a family. Everyone has buy in. When something came up, I used to think, ‘How am I going to solve this problem?’ I used to evaluate every situation and come up with a solution. Now, when we have a problem I turn to our team members and ask, ‘This is a problem we’re having, how do you recommend we fix it?’
I let them come up with the solution, so the buy-in is already there. Our team members are the next generation of our business and they need to be engaged and be forward thinkers. “At FB Marine Group, people are our greatest asset,” she continued. “There are days when we get along and other days not so much. We have done a good job focusing on our team members by making sure they have a lot of benefits including company paid insurance and continuous training. Each person who works for us has some sort of revenue-driven responsibility and they’re excited to contribute to the dealership’s success. We are very open and transparent with our financials. We have weekly meetings with our team managers so they can look at their department’s profit and loss statements and see how well they’re doing or not doing.” In 2014, Kim Sweers’ notion of buy-in—at 48
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FB Marine Group least as it applied to taking care of herself and her family including her their then-eight-year-old son, Chase—changed forever when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, a killer that was no stranger in the Sweers household. Both Kim and Randy had lost parents to the disease. Kim Sweers beat breast cancer—something in large part she and her husband credit to catching the disease in its early stages. But the actual cure and healing process extended far beyond her medical treatments and intervention. “I was overcommitted to several charities I was involved with,” she said. “Then I got sick. All of the sudden, I couldn’t be there for all these charitable causes and events—I had to be there for myself and for my family. All of those areas of interest went away. I got rid of all things in my
supported by AutoNation. This season the team is backed by MGI Digital Technology and KonicaMinolta, and the boat currently boasts badging for the AutoNation Cure Bowl, the only college bowl in which all of the proceeds go to raising awareness and battling the disease. Even Chase Sweers has taken up the cause. His own C3 for Change also knows as “Coins Curing Cancer” charity has raised more than $100,000 to date. At its annual gala in Fort Lauderdale earlier this year, the American Cancer Society honored the Sweers family as its Family of the Year. “We used to do a lot of different charitable things, but we really weren’t making an impact,” said Kim Sweers. “So we started concentrating on cancer and weeding out the other things.” At present, FB Marine Group has 50 employees and has purchased a new property along I-95. The company has recently “partnered” with Suntex Marinas LLC, the nation’s largest owner of marina facilities, at its newly acquired Miami Beach location. “The facility has 400 in-water slips that are capable of handling yachts up to 200 feet long,” said Randy Sweers. “There is a ship’s store we have taken over and gutted with Suntex as well as brought onboard West Marine, and we’re building a modern retail parts and accessories and fullblown service center. We’ll also be offering yacht concierge and management services. With his Coins Curing Cancer charity, Chase Sweers has “With this deal, we’re not just tenants—we are joined his mother and father in their philanthropic effort. business partners with Suntex,” he continued. life that were distractions. I hit the reset button on “It’s currently a three-star marina. Our goal with myself. Now, I’m just right.” Suntex is to make it a five-star marina. And that’s Sweers and her husband had been involved in one of the reasons they’ve partnered with us. supporting a number of charitable causes during They like our business philosophy. They like our the years. Since she was diagnosed with cancer, can-do attitude.” they’ve paired it down to one—the fight against As they have since they started working the disease. To that end, they used the 40-foot together—with a few course corrections along the MTI offshore raceboat (Randy Sweers started way—Randy and Kim Sweers stay behind their racing with Rob Nunziato in 1996 in a 30-foot respective “walls” of responsibility at FB Marine Motion catamaran, and though he’s taken breaks Group. Randy is a charismatic salesman with since, he’s never exited the sport) as a higha lifetime of client connections on both sides speed billboard to promote their cause. of the U.S./Canada border. Kim is a shrewd In 2014 and 2015, they “donated” the hull businesswoman who empowers her team sides and deck of the catamaran to Racing For leaders, but never loses sight of even the most Cancer, a nonprofit organization founded by 2014 granular details of what is required to run a Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and profitable operation. 49
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FB Marine Group And they make a consistent and concerted effort not to stray into one another’s territory. “That wasn’t always the case,” Kim said, then laughed. “When we first started working together, we were constantly crossing those lines. I remember paying a lot of money to attend a training session on working with family in business. And I walked away with one thing: You have to set boundaries, and neither person can cross those lines. “But we still work together,” she continued. “Randy helps me move forward. I have so many ideas, and I have to say he grounds me. He helps me say yes or no. That’s the beauty of our relationship.” Randy Sweers said that Kim has an amazing business mind. “I love to watch how Kim is able to manage people and make them better,” he said. “She is so talented at that. She gets the best out of people, and that perpetuates the growth of our company.” The Suntex deal is just one of several developments happening for FB Marine Group. While Randy Sweers isn’t ready to go into the details,
he did say the company’s involvement in the yacht market is poised to become significantly deeper. “I am not just content to make a living,” he added. “I want to expand. I want a business that is successful and recognized, one that is hopefully a legacy I will leave for my son if he wants to be involved.” Randy Sweers (second from left) is usually surrounded by friends during the Miami International Boat Show.
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