October 22, 2010
Crown Partners looks to exit Dayton 10/22/2010
I would have preferred a headline of "Crown acquires The Priest Group and expands business" with a subheading of "and considers options for for growth outside of Dayton". But, that wouldn't have made for "Breaking News". Anyway, here is the article that released today.
Premium content from Dayton Business Journal - by Joe Cogliano
Date: Thursday, October 21, 2010, 9:34am EDT
Possible Exit: Richard Hearn, CEO of Crown Partners LLC in Centerville, said his company is growing with a new acquisition and is considering moving its headquarters and all Dayton operations to either Denver or Dallas.
On the heels of an acquisition out West, one of the Dayton area’s fastest-growing companies is considering a move out of state.
Centerville-based Crown Partners LLC is leaning toward relocating its headquarters to Dallas or Denver, said Richard Hearn, managing director and chief executive officer of the 80-person information technology company.
Hearn has been eyeing a move for several years, but tabled the idea as the company weathered the recession. Now it is back on a growth track and has a footprint, and options, in both cities under consideration.
Last week, Crown Partners purchased Dallas-based marketing and business development agency, The Priest Group. The Dallas office is about 5,000 square feet, but can be expanded. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In Denver, Crown Partners recently moved its office to a 7,000-square-foot space, which also offers options to expand.
The company — recently named to the Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the nation for the fifth consecutive year — has about 10,000 square feet in its Dayton-area facility, but no room for expansion.
“If I stay here I’ve got to buy; if I’ve got to buy, I’ve got to shell out quite a bit of money,” he said.
Hearn hasn’t put a timetable on the decision to move, but said the company was offered economic incentives from local and state agencies in the Denver area when it started looking at a move a year ago. The company recently reached out to officials in the Dallas area about possible incentives to move there.
“It’ll be sooner than later,” Hearn said about when a decision on any move would be made.
Asked if Crown Partners could be convinced to stay in the Dayton area, Hearn said the problem he sees is that Ohio’s economic incentives program is cumbersome.
“The problem is I don’t have time to go through the whole process of trying to convince the state it’s a good thing to keep someone like me,” he said. “I don’t have the time to do that, I’ve got to grow the business.”
Ohio is middle of the road compared to other states across the country when it comes to the economic incentive process, said Laurence Jones, a director with Brixey & Meyer, a Miamisburg-based accounting and business consulting firm.
On the positive side, Ohio provides solid incentives that help offset the costs of expansion, said Jones, who specializes in working with companies to secure economic incentives. The downside is that Ohio’s deadlines aren’t very flexible.
“That’s really the sling, that’s what makes Ohio more difficult is that you have to file an application by a particular time in the month prior to the month you want to get approval,” Jones said. “So if you have a quick moving project, you’re kind of stuck.”
Hearn said the labor pool is another issue with staying in the Dayton area. Crown Partners already has hired 10 people this year and is now trying to hire four workers per month, but can’t fill the positions, he said.
Most of those jobs involve digital marketing technology, which consist of campaigns to take businesses online.
“Quite frankly, I struggle with convincing people to move to Dayton,” Hearn said. “There’s not enough people here to do what I want to do and it’s real easy to hire people in those (other places).”
Last year, Crown Partners fell to 70 employees from its pre-recession peak of more than 100. Hearn said Crown Partners has booked a record number of deals this year, which will translate into revenue in future years, and he expects the company to post $18 million in revenue for 2010, a more than 17 percent increase from last year.
In 2009, Crown Partners fell to $15.3 million in revenue after reporting more than $17 million in revenue in 2007 and 2008.
In a recent interview, Hearn said the rebound is a result of the company’s change in direction. Crown Partners still builds business automation software for Fortune 500 companies, but about 18 months ago began to focus on information technology solutions for sales and marketing at mid-market companies. This includes building the IT infrastructure used for processes such as e-mail marketing, social media, Web content management and analytics.
Acquiring The Priest Group made sense because it complements what Crown is doing, Hearn said.
“We’ve got the technology stuff down, we needed more resources and expertise on the marketing side and that’s what the acquisition did,” he said.
The Priest Group has about 10 employees. Its president and founder, Kyle Priest, has joined Crown Partners as vice president of its digital marketing practice.
Read more: Crown Partners looks to exit Dayton | Dayton Business Journal <http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/print-edition/2010/10/22/crown-partners-looks-to-exit-dayton.html#ixzz135r29rTP>
Premium content from Dayton Business Journal - by Joe Cogliano
Date: Thursday, October 21, 2010, 9:34am EDT
Possible Exit: Richard Hearn, CEO of Crown Partners LLC in Centerville, said his company is growing with a new acquisition and is considering moving its headquarters and all Dayton operations to either Denver or Dallas.
On the heels of an acquisition out West, one of the Dayton area’s fastest-growing companies is considering a move out of state.
Centerville-based Crown Partners LLC is leaning toward relocating its headquarters to Dallas or Denver, said Richard Hearn, managing director and chief executive officer of the 80-person information technology company.
Hearn has been eyeing a move for several years, but tabled the idea as the company weathered the recession. Now it is back on a growth track and has a footprint, and options, in both cities under consideration.
Last week, Crown Partners purchased Dallas-based marketing and business development agency, The Priest Group. The Dallas office is about 5,000 square feet, but can be expanded. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In Denver, Crown Partners recently moved its office to a 7,000-square-foot space, which also offers options to expand.
The company — recently named to the Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the nation for the fifth consecutive year — has about 10,000 square feet in its Dayton-area facility, but no room for expansion.
“If I stay here I’ve got to buy; if I’ve got to buy, I’ve got to shell out quite a bit of money,” he said.
Hearn hasn’t put a timetable on the decision to move, but said the company was offered economic incentives from local and state agencies in the Denver area when it started looking at a move a year ago. The company recently reached out to officials in the Dallas area about possible incentives to move there.
“It’ll be sooner than later,” Hearn said about when a decision on any move would be made.
Asked if Crown Partners could be convinced to stay in the Dayton area, Hearn said the problem he sees is that Ohio’s economic incentives program is cumbersome.
“The problem is I don’t have time to go through the whole process of trying to convince the state it’s a good thing to keep someone like me,” he said. “I don’t have the time to do that, I’ve got to grow the business.”
Ohio is middle of the road compared to other states across the country when it comes to the economic incentive process, said Laurence Jones, a director with Brixey & Meyer, a Miamisburg-based accounting and business consulting firm.
On the positive side, Ohio provides solid incentives that help offset the costs of expansion, said Jones, who specializes in working with companies to secure economic incentives. The downside is that Ohio’s deadlines aren’t very flexible.
“That’s really the sling, that’s what makes Ohio more difficult is that you have to file an application by a particular time in the month prior to the month you want to get approval,” Jones said. “So if you have a quick moving project, you’re kind of stuck.”
Hearn said the labor pool is another issue with staying in the Dayton area. Crown Partners already has hired 10 people this year and is now trying to hire four workers per month, but can’t fill the positions, he said.
Most of those jobs involve digital marketing technology, which consist of campaigns to take businesses online.
“Quite frankly, I struggle with convincing people to move to Dayton,” Hearn said. “There’s not enough people here to do what I want to do and it’s real easy to hire people in those (other places).”
Last year, Crown Partners fell to 70 employees from its pre-recession peak of more than 100. Hearn said Crown Partners has booked a record number of deals this year, which will translate into revenue in future years, and he expects the company to post $18 million in revenue for 2010, a more than 17 percent increase from last year.
In 2009, Crown Partners fell to $15.3 million in revenue after reporting more than $17 million in revenue in 2007 and 2008.
In a recent interview, Hearn said the rebound is a result of the company’s change in direction. Crown Partners still builds business automation software for Fortune 500 companies, but about 18 months ago began to focus on information technology solutions for sales and marketing at mid-market companies. This includes building the IT infrastructure used for processes such as e-mail marketing, social media, Web content management and analytics.
Acquiring The Priest Group made sense because it complements what Crown is doing, Hearn said.
“We’ve got the technology stuff down, we needed more resources and expertise on the marketing side and that’s what the acquisition did,” he said.
The Priest Group has about 10 employees. Its president and founder, Kyle Priest, has joined Crown Partners as vice president of its digital marketing practice.
Read more: Crown Partners looks to exit Dayton | Dayton Business Journal <http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/print-edition/2010/10/22/crown-partners-looks-to-exit-dayton.html#ixzz135r29rTP>