their umbrella to to buy our company. So, you know, we, we, we discussed it and didn't want, we felt that it'd be best to be in the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in. Since we, 40% of the of the retail price of a bass boat rig is the outboard engine. Since we did not own an engine company we would be competing with boat manufacturers.
BC: Largest single
EB: Exactly, so (16:40)
BC: So, you can go back to ‘83 when you started the company and where did you get capital and started boat manufacturer?
EB: So, I had saved my wife and I, Janet and I, had had saved a little money and. We used that capital and I had two partners that, silent partners who came in, Gary Clark and Dan Maddox. Dan Maddox was
BC: I definitely know the Dan Maddox name and he was a Shoney's director.
EB: That is correct.
BC: Yeah,
EB: found the company called Associates Finance. They were both the hunting and fishing buddies of mine. And, you know the decision to to, to seek. (17:22)
BC: I don't believe I know who Gary. Gary Clark is that
EB: Gary is still a great friend of mine.
BC: What’s his Background I don’t know
EB: Now he worked with Associates…
BC: OK, Pam Annex, built the YMCA in East Nashville by the way
EB: Ohh, that's correct. Ohh.
BC: Did you, [indistinguishable] At this time, and this is were there are other people in town who you talk to who were who were interested in the business. This wasn't that long ago in some ways.
EB: I had several people in town who
BC: I've missed like Massey Birch. You know these people. (18:00)
EB: Didn’t talk to any of those. I had several people who were interested in investing. And I've always felt that own a piece of something is better than
owning all of nothing and. Dan and Gary both with their financial background and financial wisdom…
BC: Mmhmm
Unknown: Thank you
BC: Thank you
EB: Thank you, you all done?
Unknown: Yes, sir.
EB: Thank you. Nice meeting you. That more than the the capital, that infusion, that the you know the the their knowledge would be invaluable. And, the manufacturing and I knew the finan-, the performance side and construction aspects pretty well. And what I didn't know, the people that were on our team did, and we had people who were experts in every area from engineering work, Rook Summerford heads engineering, still does for me today. Tony Meadows, who heads up manufacturing and. Um.
BC: These were people that were with you at Stratus? (19:20)
EB: They were with me at Hydro Sports, that’s correct. And in Stratus and again still here today.
BC: Well, I didn’t mean to interrupt where your thought was going, who which, outboard moter company did you sell?
EB: Sold to OMC which was Johnson and Evenrue at the time. Guy named Charlie Strang was Chairman of the Board at the time. Jack Reichert was chairman of the board of Brunswick Company, which owned Mercury, Mercury and Mariner outboard at the time. And it did not get down to a a price war between them, that that wasn't the issue. In fact, with Brunswick, we never got dowm to talking about price. Brunswick wanted us to keep the manufacturing in, but the salespeople who had been with me, marketing people who've been with me all those years. Brunswick only wanted to give them a one-year contract. But they told me up front that this is Brunswick now, Mercury, that they had their own ideas on sales and marketing and they wanted us to be the manufacturing arm and they wanted to do the sales and marketing themselves. OMC on the other hand, Johnson Evinrude, they said that that we don't want to change anything except help you grow. That you have, obviously successful sales and marketing people and and again, I had people who had took a chance to come with me. You know, it's Stratus. Had left good secure jobs and the company was only four years old. Yeah, and. I
EB: And negotiations broke down with them in April of 1996 and. So, I resigned from there and started this company.
BC: Um, turning again. Pretty expensive to start a company, and Mr. Mr. Maddox was dead by this time,
EB: no?
BC: Ohh
EB: He was actually here still alive. Yes and but but he was 80, I guess he was 85 or 86 years old at the time. And. We were. We were having lunch at the same place when I was talking with him about plans for this company that we had lunch that I talked with him about for the first company.
BC: Well, what was the place, I need to know.
EB: Well, ohh. Bell Meade Country Club
BC: OK. (23:53)
EB: And uh. We were, we were out on the patio and, and Dan said, well, how much of this new one are you gonna let me have? And I said, well Dan, my financial position is a lot different today than it was then and I really don't need any partners today. And I said I've got some key people in the company that I want to allow to come in. To be able to buy in at some point into the business. And, he looked at me and said you can't start, you know you can't. What are we gonna talk about when we go hunting and fishing? You can't do this without without me. You got to let me have some part of it. And I did with the with an understanding, and again, that Dan's was a great friend, a great mentor. And, we, you know, discussed buy/sell terms and and and that in the event of his death. And so, we did. He came in with a very small percentage. Not as big as he had in the first company, but enough to keep his
BC: So, you brought him along this time.
EB: Well, sort of, but I, but I've got to tell you, I can't tell you how many times, so, on my way home from work, I would call him and say I need some advice, I need some counsel. And I, do you have a moment? And I, I don't, I, I can never remember a time when he didn't say that he didn't have a moment to sit down and visit and again, relying on his wisdom and experience.
BC: Going back to your issue to that, where Marine, can you be more specific and just say we didn't see eye to eye? Where there was this product lines
you wanted to bring along were there sales philosophies, was the company getting beaten up by a competitior and making you sick?
EB: No, we weren't getting beat. In fact, we were doing very well, and we had the greatest market share of any of our competitors. The guy that came in was, he was a micromanager. He didn't know and understand the marine business, and he felt that that that we needed new and fresh ideas, so he wanted to try new things. One was consolidation program that he began working on. Something that we had attempted to do in the early stages of all of the OMC boat companies, that failed miserably.
BC: You mean consolidating plants?
EB: Well, consolidating things initially below the water line. Things that weren't obvious, like payroll, transportation.
BC: Yeah.
EB: We tried to ship bass boats on boat, on tractor trailers that were designed to ship some of the other OMC Company pontoon boats.
BC: Yeah, (26:45)
EB: Just didn't work. We had freight damage. We had drivers who were disgruntled because they left home and wouldn't be home for four to six weeks and not see their families. And we had our own drivers who had a very good relationship with our dealers and they were certainly an extension of our family. We were already pooling our purchasing so we had our own buying group to get better deals on raw materials but consolidating engineering and tooling. You know, each of the 15 or so OMC boat companies at the time had their own individual design and tooling departments, so each maintained its own identity. And when you tend to consolidate it all under one roof, they all start looking alike and you lose your identity. And, I guess from the industry that he came from all washing machines are, are white, you know,
BC: So, the boat, if I'm not mistaken, many consumers, they see their identity in their their name, their name not in the company that built the boat. So it's not it’s not the parent company that they associate with as much sometimes, it might be the individual you mentioned distinction of each particular line, but I didn't even know this man's name. What was the chairman of?
EB: His name was Hank Bowman.
BC: Hank Bowman
EB: And he was a he was a very nice man, well educated. But, in in, in my opinion, and in the 12 months that I worked with him, he just never got a solid grasp on the marine industry.
BC: What was his background?
EB: Came from Whirlpool Corporation. (28:40)
BC: Oh OK, so he came from the manufacturing type operation but not the boat. You know, it reminds me you mentioned Brunswick and it along the way, one of the Genesco CEO's was a Brunswick man.
EB: Really?
BC: Jack Hannigan. I think that was his name. They called him Hatchet Jack. I think I'm but it was somebody because I remember talking to the Genesco people who today who still. Disparagingly referred to him as the bowling ball man. But uh. Did you? I saw. Well, just give me some details. Did you, once you decided to do this? Of course, you kept it secret for why you can't say anything. Or did you did you tell them? You say I'm going to start my own company?
EB: Ohh. Yeah. I approached him in December of ‘95 and I told him that I didn't, you know, didn't want to be part of his management team going forward, that I was gonna do one or two things. I was either gonna go back in the marine business or I was gonna buy my old company back. He um, He actually, uh, told me to wait if you would. Because he was considering selling all of the OMC boat companies there. We had a board meeting coming up the following January. And they did make the decision to sell the board based on some numbers that he had given them that he could, that he felt that OMC could get from liquidating all of the boat companies and…
BC: They were going to sell all the boat,
EB: They're going to sell them all
BC: Would that would that have left at OMC? (30:15)
EB: Johnson Evenrue Brands
BC: They would have. In other words, they would have done the reverse of what they've done a few years earlier.
EB: It is correct. They would have kept Johnson Evenrue and [indistinguishable] And, and really at the time probably made sense for them and, and, and structure some type of a long-term engine supply agreement with each company as they sold it off. And, and that's really what took the time, you know, from when I finally made my mind up that I did not want to be part of his management team going forward. We had the board meeting, and it was the 21st or 2nd or so of January the next year that the board made the decision to the divest of the boat companies. But they did that based on some numbers that he had given him that he felt that, the value was there to, you know, help them put a little hay in the barn, if you will. And then, still accomplish the goals that that they had originally when they acquired the boat companies that's to provide transoms, for their outboards. So, through all that process. That that took from January the 21st or 2nd of 1996 through the end of April. They went from, trying to sell them and our our company was gonna be my, my division was going to be the first one that they were gonna try to sell to me. And when he finally realized that what he thought they were and what they were actually worth were miles apart, they decided to keep the boat companies and not sell them. And that's when I left and started my own. And that took them until about the third week of April.
BC: So how long does it take you from the time you drive home to the time you you have a you're producing boats with Triton Boat Company?
EB: Well, the first thing I did was I took a little break. Turkey season, was last two weeks the Turkey season, I went Turkey hunting for a couple of weeks and. My Assistant Secretary Gene Hurley, who had been with me for many years and still with me today. She gave her notice, turned her noticed in that she wanted to leave, she asked me if she could come
BC: Yeah. (32:48)
EB: And, after a couple of weeks we went and found a, uh a office building to rent.
BC: In Hendersonville?
EB: Hendersonville, that's correct. Had a building across the street that we were tooling product in developing new product Rook Summerford, who ended up engineering for me, had had left and actually started his own raceboat company. In the mid 90s or so, Early 90s, I guess. Sold that company and came back to hit up engineering full time for me. So, we rented his building that he had in Hendersonville to do the tooling. And we tooled and I
rented the old Genesco shoe factory out on [indestinguishable] lane in East Nashville.
BC: Ohh you were the last person who used that building…probably.
EB: We moved out
BC: I was wondering-
EB: July of ‘97 we went in there.
BC: No one came in after you. That was when I've moved back over there again. I was there for the tornado, but I always wondered who was the last. I knew somebody had used it…
EB: Yeah, we did and did very well, you know, out of that facility. (34:00)
BC: But nevertheless, you how, how many boats did you produce during this time? You’re doing R and E?
EB: R and D, We didn’t produce any.
BC: Yeah, you're, you're, you're,
EB: We’re tooling. When we started tooling in May of 1996. And we produced the first boat about the 1st of October of that year, so it took several months.
BC: To have a prototype boat of sorts.
EB: Well, yes, to to get the first design. We did lots of testing and
BC: Which you put behind lock and key, I take it.
EB: We did. We did
BC: It’s like the Colonel's recipe here
EB: and again we had, we had great people working on the team and
BC: what were some, I'm sorry go ahead.
EB: we were talking with our pro-fisherman. We had several dealers calling wanting to do business with us.
BC: Can you tell me there was something in The Journal about this, the dealers that were calling to do business with you, what were they have? There's three or four who were some of the major players in the industry at this time, your former employer, OMB…
EB: OMC (35:00)
BC: OMC, excuse me. And then? Is it Ranger?
EB: Ranger is a competitor.
BC: What were the competitors saying? What were the other boat companies who knew who you were, saying to the dealers at this time?
EB: You know, I don't know.
BC: They weren't getting where there was anyone getting pressured not to carry Earl Benson and Boat
EB: Well, when we yes, particularly from my old company.
BC: Ohh
EB: From OMC.
BC: There's no legal, you're, it expired.
EB: The dealers are free to buy, obviously, from who they wanted to and I had no non competes and I was very careful not to call and solicit employees to come to work, they had to call me if they wanted to leave. Even though I guess legally I probably could have, you know, called them. As long as they weren’t under some employment contract and the but the dealers more importantly the most flattering part was doing this tooling process is the hundreds of dealers that called from around the country saying that you know that we liked doing business with you in the past and we hope that you will let us sell you line in the future and….
BC: So, it’s known in the industry that you're you're starting a company and you're doing something in Nashville?
EB: Yes
BC: Yes, somewhat secret, but everybody knows you're you're starting a new… Did you hear any? I know you've done the dealers pretty well. What is the. What were they told by by the large boat companies that were your competitors at that time. If you carry Earl’s boat, then we won't,
EB: Well, you know,
BC: We won’t give you a discount the way we have been or something.
EB: I you know, there were there were some companies that told them if you take on Earl’s boat, We're we're not gonna sell you ours anymore.
BC: They were they were told that you you're convinced of that?
EB: Ohh, I know that.
BC: OK,
EB: Yes, for sure.
BC: Which is, I suppose, legal. I guess.
EB: Uhhh, I dont know
BC: I mean, I, I've still- (37:00)
EB: You know, we, we sort of liked it when they told em that because. You know, and that just, you know, going to an independent businessman and, and, and tell him he can make suggestions, you know, don’t demand and tell him what he's going to do because typically if he's like me, he's gonna blow up. He's gonna do what he wants to do anyway. Yeah. So, you know, most of them told these manufacturers and told them that, you know, look, when you come and start paying my my light bill for me and when your name is hung on that shingle outside, you can come in here and tell me what to do. You just don't go into an independent businessman and demand that this is what you will do or else you'll probably get, the or else. Because you’ll probably get the “or else.”
BC: Well, it's funny because I hear a lot of this. I'm, I'm learning, I got a friend who's in the business and he doesn't work with Home Depot, but it's amazing how powerful the small number of large retailers in this world are. And they really do. They really are able to jerk manufacturers around today. I don't.
EB: You mean the Home Depots of the world?
BC: Well, just. My friend was telling me but not this is a different business.
EB: Well, we actually, I mean I still even though you know. I wasn't able to buy my division back.
BC: Yeah
EB: 80% of the engines that I bought that year that went on our New Triton packages were Johnsons Evenrude. (38:30)
BC: I was gonna ask you,
EB: We still maintained a a wonderful relationship with Johnson and Evinrude,
BC: But not the parent company?
EB: Ohh, yeah, well, they were the parent company with OMC. I mean we didn't have any dealings with their boat companies, but we bought their engines that sold and we're very successful with them and sold them. Like I say, the first year was over 80%.
BC: Well, why not out of spite these Mercuries
EB: Well, I'm trying not to let spite getting away a good sense and Johnson Evanrue had a good product and we had a lot of experience with them. We knew all the people at Johnson Evanrue, we had a good working relationship with them and and that's what our dealers at the time wanted to buy. And, you know, we were starting a relationship with Mercury and we're beginning to have a relationship with, uh, Yamaha.
BC: OK.
EB: But most of our business that year was with Johnson Evinrude.
BC: Curious, where does the name Triton come from? (39:30)
EB: Triton is in Greek mythology, king of the sea.
BC: OK, so it is it is Greek. It is just the the the the main link is Greek mythology. There's nothing more?
EB: Yeah. I mean, it's not offensive to any, you know, race or creed or anyone that's just and have some meaning to it.
BC: How how long till you’d outgrown your Hendersonville and Genesco doings? (39:57)
EB: Well, we started tooling as I said in in May of 1996 in Hendersonville and we did not have any room there to manufacture products. So, we started immediately looking for a building. Well, for a couple of things. One, for a building to lease on the temporary basis to build, y’know, some semblance of production until we could get our new facility built, but we still didn't have a site. And we started looking around the Middle Tennessee, Southern Kentucky looking for places to to build our boat. Our permanent plant and at the time, guy named Gary Binkley was chairman of the Cheatham County Industrial Development Board. And he was very very helpful and, very aggressive in his approach to encourage us to come to Cheatham County. We looked in Robertson County, we looked in Dickson County, we looked in Davidson County. And
BC: Did you get very far in Davidson County?
EB: We actually had a piece of land that we had optioned that actually gave the option to the University School. It just, we went through the rezoning process. Just as you come across the bridge with the soccer fields on the right hand side, right on the river, there's 80 acres there.
BC: You mean a Cockrell Bend or?
EB: No, no, right here when you come out White Bridge Rd.
BC: Yeah.
EB: Ohh. Just as you go over the river, right on the right hand side. It's not Cockrell bends..
BC: And why does the universities, you mean the University School of Nashville?
EB: Yeah. They don't have a soccer field, baseball field.
BC: Ohh. They have a sports facility that's close to Cockrell Bend, that little industrial land. As you're coming down, as you're coming. Get off I-40, come down
EB: White Bridge Rd. Come up Briley Parkway,
BC: OK, This way.
EB: So as you go across the river on the right-hand side there there is before the. (41:50)
BC: Well, your property taxes would have been higher.
EB: Property taxes would have been higher. We were looking for a place that was close to our labor force. And while most of our labor comes from Dixon and Cheatham counties. In fact, at the time when I was in Old Hickory, over 60% of it came from Dixon and Cheatham County. So, we looked at, again, Davidson County, all the counties, pretty hard. We wanted a place that was in close proximity to Warner, for testing. Yeah, we've got our own private boat ramp here that's 500 yards down the road. Something that again, looking at my management team so that they wouldn't have to drive to the end of the world or relocate. So, there's this was just a great location for us.
BC: Were you able to get anything from the city? Was Nashville competitive with? Because if you come out here, your property taxes are much lower right off the bat. Your statewide taxes are the same.
EB : At the time, we weren't able to get anything out of Davidson County.
BC: Dell, this is if we're Dell,
EB: This is right before Dell.
BC: Did that bother you at the time
EB: Yeah, when I read it in the paper it did
BC: About ohh, you read that they weren't doing anything for you or….
EB: they weren't doing anything for us, but when when they did what they did for Dell, you know, local business, that, you know, the business that we built that OMC with three brands with Stratus, Javelin and Hydro Sports, you know, we had 850 employees. So in in the and and does
BC: Which on the average make a lot more than Dell.
EB: I don't know what they make.
BC: I don't, I don't believe Dell and of course the other thing is what we the other thing is this is more capital-intensive business. The computer assembly business is real fly by night as we now know. The um…
EB: You know, we were happy,
BC: yeah.
EB: With Davidson County, we did get one for the Industrial Development Board. Now they did approve industrial development bonds for us if we choose to use them. Ohh. But that was about the extent, you know, there were no tax concessions made.
BC: You would have been paying the full property. Are you still getting hit right here being in Tennessee with a rather substantial franchise tax, which is…
EB: I really don't know all that OK about franchise taxes and all that sort of stuff, but all I can tell you is that this this county. It's been wonderful to us. They were looking for ways to make this deal work.
BC: Well, can you give, I assume there was some, was there free real estate? Do they offer more than free real estate?
EB: Well, I can't discuss the the nature of the deal except that if I were, if I were a a state, this would be a state that's looking to attract industry, this
county would be one and attract jobs, this county would be at the top of my list.
BC: Okay (44:59)
EB: We had a similar deal in in Mississippi, and we chose Mississippi because of the labor force there. They had we, we put it on our plant down there, aluminum plant, which we've all we produced in Mississippi was aluminum boats. We did not have, well we had a great labor force in Tennessee for fiberglass boats, we did not have there. There were there were no existing aluminum boat plants here. Sorta like if you want to start a furniture factory go to Hickory, NC where you've got experience
BC: What other aluminum boat plant’s near?
EB: Well Fisher Aluminum was located in West Point, 10 miles from Aberdeen, and they. When, when Brunswick sold Fisher to Tracker, they shut the plant down and moved it to a Springfield, MO. Lebanon, MO I should say. Ohh.
BC: So, you literally had a workforce that in many cases was unemployed?
EB: That's correct.
BC: Oh OK
EB: and 12.9% unemployment down there as well. So, we've hired probably 80 or 90 ex-Fisher employees that are Mississippi plant. (46:04)
BC: When you came out with the Triton boat, there may be a long answer to this, and I’m almost afraid to ask, but what were some of the things about that distinguished Triton Boat from the other boats? In addition to the name as…
EB: Well, back then, the if you look at trends and styling the automobile industry and then look at the boating industry. They tend, boating industries tends to follow some of the trends that you see in automobiles things were getting rounder and softer, rather than the hard lines that that we had on boat designs back in the mid 90s. But but probably the the single biggest thing that that we went out on a limb to do was we made an investment to take the wood out of the boat and we put in a fiberglass composite material made with high density foam and fiberglass matting and roman woven. That replaced the wood. That would. CUT