Inboard Industry’s Top Executive Led Company’s Meteoric Rise to #1 Ranking Worldwide in Global Sales Volume

Loudon, Tennessee – September 20, 2017 –   At the annual International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference (IBEX) Industry Breakfast on Tuesday morning in Tampa, Boating Industry Magazine announced Malibu Boats, Inc. CEO Jack Springer as the recipient of its 2017 Mover & Shaker of the Year award.

The transformational executive has been at Malibu’s helm since 2009, leading a restructuring effort that brought stability and sustained growth to the longtime towboat company. Today, Malibu is the world’s top inboard manufacturer in terms of market share, according to Info-Link Technologies.

“Jack’s approach to success entails building and empowering well-functioning executive teams,” said Boating Industry Editor Tim Hennagir. “His leadership has provided focus, discipline and accountability.”

In his nine years as chief, Springer has transformed Malibu into a streamlined, vertically integrated model of efficiency with a focus on technological innovation. First, Springer founded the Axis Wake Research brand in 2009, at a time when most competitors were scaling back. Nearly a decade later, Info-Link reports that Axis is the fourth-largest inboard brand in the world.

Then, in 2010, he opened a new production facility in Loudon, Tenn., the longtime epicenter of freshwater marine manufacturing. Because the towboat industry had yet to recover from the recession and other brands were still downsizing, expansion to the greater Knoxville area meant immediate access to a skilled labor force that helped accelerate Malibu’s growth. Currently, the company has grown to over 500 employees in Tennessee and nearly 600 worldwide.

Next, Springer successfully guided Malibu through an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2014. Most recently, he stunned the boating industry by engineering the acquisition of Cobalt Boats.

During Springer’s tenure at Malibu, the company has maintained an acute focus on product innovation. It was the first towboat manufacturer to produce a hull specifically for wakeboarding, and it is the leader in wake and wave-enhancement technology, with a series of industry-firsts in that category, including the Wedge™ hydrofoil, Power Wedge™, Power Wedge II™, Surf Gate™ and Surf Band™.

Currently, Malibu handcrafts nearly 3,500 boats annually in Loudon and its dealer network includes more than 200 locations in over 50 countries. The company has also established a production facility in New South Wales, Australia, to exclusively serve that country with the same engineering prowess and attention to detail that Springer implemented in America.

“We’ve improved domestic market share for Malibu in the inboard segment from about 22 percent in 2009 to 33 percent. And in that process, we’ve created over 1,000 basis points of separation between our nearest competitors,” stated Springer. “From an international standpoint, we now sell almost one out of every two boats and are the clear leaders around the world in that regard. We grew this market share through programs, processes and aggressively growing with quality dealers.”