LCI Industries has acquired the business and certain assets of the furniture manufacturing operation of Smoker Craft, a pontoon, aluminum fishing, and fiberglass boat manufacturer located in New Paris, Ind. First year revenue for the marine furniture business acquired from Smoker Craft is estimated to be approximately $35 million.
“We are thankful to our partners at Smoker Craft for entrusting us with their furniture operations,” said Ryan Smith, senior VP of sales and operations for LCI. “Over the last four years, LCI has become one of the leading suppliers of marine furniture to the industry. We’ve grown to the size we have because of the foundation of trust we’ve built with our marine customer base, along with the steady flow of innovation that we’re pouring into the industry. I’m excited to add the Smoker Craft product to our seating catalog and I assure all of Smoker Craft’s customers that they are in good hands with LCI.”
The purchase price was $28 million, which was paid at closing from borrowings under LCI’s $325 million line of credit. Additionally, the parties entered into a long-term supply agreement as part of the transaction.
“We feel very comfortable with the Lippert team and believe the cultures at Lippert and Smoker Craft are an ideal fit,” said Doug Smoker, president and CEO of Smoker Craft. “In the future this move will free up manufacturing space, giving us the ability to concentrate on building boats. We are excited about this relationship, as well as the as the team concept and core values Lippert brings to our business.”
“We are excited to add Smoker Craft’s furniture manufacturing business to the LCI family. This is very similar to the furniture manufacturing operation that we purchased from Godfrey Marine in 2016, and that transition went extremely well,” said Jason Lippert, LCI CEO. “This will be our fourth marine furniture acquisition in the last four years and as we continue to grow in the marine space, more opportunities continue to present themselves. This line of business has grown so significantly that earlier this year we opened a 700,000 square foot facility in Fort Wayne, Ind., to serve our marine customers. We anticipate that the Smoker Craft furniture manufacturing business will remain in New Paris while we transition the operation into the LCI family. I have the utmost confidence in Ryan Smith and his teams to ensure that there is a smooth manufacturing transition with Smoker Craft. We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to LCI’s earnings.”
