Ski Pioneer Glides Into Worldwide Market

AUBURN

Denny Kidder, a pioneer in fiberglass water ski design, is about to take the company he started in his garage in 1979 to a broader, worldwide arena.

Kidder says he is close to sealing a deal to buy Fanatic, a German maker of snowboards and windsurfers. If the purchase goes through, the 50-year-old Kidder will preside over one of the largest marine sports companies in the nation, a consortium with about $60 million in sales and a growing job base here.

Kidder says the deal would let Kidder International Inc., the original water ski company he started in Kent, take advantage of existing distribution lines for water skis and use its manufacturing and support network here to sell Fanatic products.

"To be successful in the '90s, you need synergy, because margins are a lot closer," says Kidder, president of Kidder International. "The idea is to spread overhead costs over a wider scale."

Kidder's high-end skis, made of reinforced fiberglass, quickly gained prominence in the water ski industry and by 1984 Kidder was on the Inc. 500 list of fastest- growing companies in the nation.

Last year he sold Kidder to Esmark Inc., a holding company in New York that also owns Danskin Inc., a dance apparel company, and several other water ski makers. Kidder says he sold the company because it needed access to more capital to grow. Kidder would not say how much Esmark paid for Kidder International.

Kidder also became president of Esmark Marine Sports Inc., a subsidiary with several water ski divisions, including Jobe, Surfalley, Duvall and Jet-N-USA, that were moved to Auburn.

Last year, Esmark Marine's ski lines sold $11 million in water skis, wet suits and sports clothing. The companies employ about 160 people in several buildings near the Auburn airport and made 120,000 water skis last year.

Kidder has been negotiating for four months on the purchase from Fanatic, whose main business is industrial composites, with sales of about $300 million. The German company decided to sell its sports business, with international sales of about $40 million, to concentrate on the industrial end, said Kidder.

Despite a slow economy, Esmark Marine's water ski lines will have about $20 million in sales this year, Kidder says. With Fanatic in the fold, combined Esmark sales will be about $60 million a year. Kidder says he plans to hire another 100 employees in the next year and add 30,000 square feet to the Kidder plant, which he owns.

Kidder says his optimism is based on business done at boat shows this year.

"We've had some terrific retail boat shows, which tells me it might be a good summer," he said.

Despite his increasing management responsibilities, Kidder continues to design water skis, something he's been doing since joining a small Bellevue company, Composite Structures, in the late 1960s. Previously, he had worked in composites design for several years, at Heath Tecna Aerospace Co. in Kent and at Hitco in Auburn.

O'Brien International later bought Composite Structures and Kidder worked for them from 1973 to 1975. After he tired of corporate life, Kidder started his first water ski company, Stinger, which he sold in 1977 to Fuqua Sports. Kidder worked for Fuqua until 1979, when he started Kidder International.

One thing that Kidder has learned from his many years in business is that water skis, particularly his high-end designs, have been relatively recession-proof.

"The nice thing about this business is that people will continue to recreate," he says. "They will only stay at home so long."

Kidder says building water skis keeps him in touch with the youth culture. His sales have been helped during the recession by the making of wake boards, single-board water skis very popular among young people and which now account for one-third to one-half of his sales.

Knee boards, which a skier kneels on, are also popular with the younger crowd.

"Everything on the funky side of the business is younger guys not wanting to do stuff like their old man," says Kidder. "It's a good resurgence for our business."