Irwin L. Jacobs

Irwin L Jacobs is an entrepreneur and the CEO of several large corporations, including Genmar Holdings, Inc. the worlds largest boat building company. He earned the nickname "Irv the Liquidator" for his aggressive business practices in the 1970s and early 1980s. He is a deal maker and bargain hunter based in Minneapolis and became wealthy by taking big stakes in Fortune 500 conglomerates, usually with the goal of unlocking value by breaking them up.

tarting his career

Jacobs started his career working with his father at his business, Northwestern Bag, Co. He attended college at University of Minnesota, then at the age of 33 he purchased the ailing Grain Belt (beer) in 1975 for $4.1 million with his company I.J. Enterprises . He tried unsuccessfully for 8 months to turn the company that was losing nearly $200,000 per month at the time around he then liquidated the company, selling the brand to G. Heileman Brewing Company, and profited $4 million (The Wall Street Journal July 30 1980). He later sold the property with the brewery to the City of Minneapolis in 1989 for $4.85 million (Star Tribune 18 February 1989).

Jacobs' next deal netted him even more. He read about W. T. Grant filing for bankruptcy in the Wall Street Journal and fancied purchasing the consumer accounts receivable owed to them. He soon thereafter negotiated a deal where he purchased the $276.3 million account for $44 million and 5% of first years sales (The Wall Street Journal July 30 1980).

elling an idea

In August of 2001 Irwin held an open house at his Little Falls, MN, factory to show off a compact, enclosed computer-controlled manufacturing system that can be remotely operated over the Internet. Visitors will saw an 18-foot hull (which used to take eight hours to produce), pop out every 35 minutes. Pollution, waste, and labor were to be sharply reduced, while quality would be higher. Genmar also offered a lifetime guarantee instead of the industry standard of five years. [http://www.nytimes.com/ads/peoplesoft/article12.html PeopleSoft: The Evolution of Manufacturing ] ]

The technology was invented by Gene Kirila II and Robert McCollum, two Pennsylvanians who envision scattering leased VEC manufacturing cells around the world that would produce a variety of products close to where they would be used. The expertise to run the systems could reside at a central control center thanks to the Internet, so that workers at the production sites would not need extensive training.

Where is he now?

He now owns many businesses including: Watkins Incorporated, Jacobs Management Corp., Jacobs Industries, Inc., J.Y.J. Corp., C.O.M.B. Co., Federal Financial Corporation, FFC Realty, Watkins, Inc., Northwestern Bag Corporation, Nationwide Collection Service, Inc., 1. Jacobs Enterprises, Kodicor, Inc., Brown-Minneapolis Tank and Fabricating Co., Regional Accounts Corporation, Nationwide Accounts, Corporation, Jacobs Bag Corporation, Lawndale Industries Inc., EQC of Indiana, Inc., Touch Corporation, JMSL Acquiring Corporation, S.J. Industries, Inc., JII Air Service, Inc., P.S.T. Acquiring Corporation.

Jacobs founded FLW Outdoors, the parent organization of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, a series of sportfishing tours best know for its bass fishing tournaments, which were developed with an eye toward media coverage in general and television coverage in particular. [ [http://mc.flwoutdoors.com/mc/Irwin%20L.%20Jacobs.doc.pdf FLW Outdoors: Irwin Jacobs bio] ]

References

[http://www.nytimes.com/ads/peoplesoft/article12.html] , "The Evolution of Manufacturing", by Barnaby Feder, accessed on June 29th, 2008