Acquiring Minds Exiting for Millions vs. Long-Term Hold
17 snips
Feb 16, 2026 Don Grigg, CEO and co-owner of Big Adventures and builder of kayak and plastics brands, shares his journey buying small, broken manufacturing firms. He compares selling one business for a big payout to keeping another as a long-term family venture. He discusses scaling recycling and kayak operations, why private equity can clash with small firms, and passing the torch to the next generation.
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A Lucrative But Mixed Exit
- Don sold the recycling business to an Illinois Toolworks division seven years after purchase for a multi-million exit.
- He stayed a year to run it, then watched culture and profitability shift under the new owner.
Standardization Can Destroy Margins
- The acquirer's move to standardize commodity grades reduced the recycling business's creative, high-margin work.
- Focusing only on commodity volumes preserved revenue but squeezed profitability.
Growing A Kayak Brand From A Job Shop
- For years Don curated the custom job shop and grew the small kayak line into a larger product business.
- By 2008–09 the combination of a dialed-in custom business and growing kayak sales created a stable platform.
