The purchase by an investor group of Logan Manufacturing Co., manufacturers of LMC snow grooming vehicles and associated implements, was announced in early January, immediately before the NSAA regional trade shows. The new owners, LMC Holding Co., includes investors from California and New York. The purchase price was announced as $13 million and was financed primarily by the buyer. The company has annual sales of over $20 million.
Heading the buying group as chairman is former California Senator (D) John V. Tunney, with Alfred A. Rapetti vice chairman.
Tunney is managing director of John V. Tunney & Associates, an investment banking firm with offices in New York and California. He served in the U.S. Congress from 1964 to 1970, and in the Senate from 1971 to 1977. His wife Katinka, a Swedish Olympic and World Cup downhiller, was Swedish downhill champion for four consecutive years from 1960 to 1964.
Al Rapetti, who has been with LMC since 1987, and vice chairman since 1989, was responsible for the sale of the company to the new investors. A nuclear engineer by background, Rapetti sold his own major capital equipment leasing company in the 1980’s to a major bank.
In becoming an investment banker after this sale he became enamored of LMC and the industry it was in.
“Being an engineer, I was initially intrigued by the LMC equipment and the level of expertise; but I found the company needed different ownership and financial backing to really meet its potential,” Rapetti says, adding, “It’s really like the Harley Davidson story where all that was needed was new direction and investment for it to become a great American company.”
The seller of LMC was a U.S. corporation wholly owned by John Z. DeLorean, flamboyant one-time automotive entrepreneur, who had purchased it from Thiokol Corp. in 1979. In the wake of DeLorean’s high-profile financial and legal problems in the early 80’s, the future of the LMC operation seemed to hinge on the ability of DeLorean’s lawyers to keep creditors at bay and keep the Utah company free of court liens and stockholder attachments. Despite the enormous problems engendered by all this, LMC’s president, Mike Beeley, managed to keep the company moving and competitive in its product line—a major factor in the buying decision of the new owners who had been reviewing the operation for two years.
John DeLorean and his corporation are now totally out of the LMC picture, present and future, according to the new owners. “What we’ve got is a whole new future for an old and respected product line,” said Rapetti.
The early LMC tracked vehicles were in the vanguard of pioneering attempts to develop slope grooming capabilities that went beyond the adaptation of all-terrain military vehicles and agricultural implements. The American ski area industry was ahead of the world in seeking ski-specific equipment and in “snow farming” generally.
The new owners of LMC have made clear their intention to invest in research, product development and market expansion. “In recent years, LMC has not had financial muscle available to it for realizing its potential,” said John Tunney. “Now, with the new financial resources, this will change.”
In addition to ski resort equipment, LMC anticipates “extensive growth in the utility vehicle area.” At the moment, about 85 percent of the company’s sales are in snow grooming equipment for downhill and cross-country ski areas and over snowmobile trails.
“We expect to continue LMC’s pioneering work in vehicle improvements, especially in hydraulic controls, tillers, compactor bars and high-load winches,” said Mike Beeley. LMC innovations have resulted in 26 U.S. and foreign patents, with an additional five pending.
In addition to Logan, Utah, LMC has sales and services offices in six locations across the U.S., as well as distribution outlets in virtually all skiing parts of the world. In Europe the LMC products are marketed as Ratrac.
