Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/765201
www.BoatingIndustry.com 28 | Boating Industry | January 2017 There may not be a company doing more to shake up the boating industry than OneWater Marine Holdings. Since 2010 – fi rst as Singleton Marine Group and now as OneWa- ter – the company has united nine dealer brands under one umbrella. As of mid-2016, the company had 35 locations stretching across the southern U.S. It's something we haven't seen since MarineMax began consolidat- ing dealerships across the country in 1998 and, like that effort, it has the potential to reshape the dealer landscape in North America. In 2015 alone, the company acquired three dealerships: American Boat Brokers, Captain's Choice Marine and Rambo Marine. More ac- quisitions have continued in 2016. At the same time, OneWater grew same-store sales by 16 percent for the year (and 33 percent across all locations), while growing net profi t by 27 percent. It's a record of success that makes OneWater stand out as the 2016 Top 100 Dealer of the Year. Exit strategy The decision to pursue the OneWater strategy came out of a series of discussions between CEO Austin Singleton and COO Anthony Aisquith during their days at Singleton Marine Group at the end of the last decade. At that point, Singleton was already one of the country's leading deal- ers, but the management team saw the potential for more. "We could pull the business back 25, 30 percent and almost put it on autopilot," Singleton said. "That was something we really looked at. Do we want to just concentrate on higher margins, concentrate on fi ne- tuning the business, not do as much, pull it back, let this incredible staff run it and take a lot of it off of us?" The answer, the two quickly decided was "heck no," as both knew they would quickly get bored if they opted to coast. "We made this agreement together that we were going to try to build this thing, try to become the world's biggest retailer, as long as it re- mained fun," Singleton said. "The reason we went this direction is that OneWater Marine Holdings The OneWater leadership team (L to R): Managing Director Scott Cunningham, Director of Marketing Evan Davis, CFO Cindy Thompson, CEO Austin Singleton, COO Anthony Aisquith