Q&A: Falcon Boats Sticking To Slow-Growth Plan

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Stephen Waller grew up around bass boats, not just in a “my-dad-took-me-fishing-every-weekend” sense. He literally grew up around bass boats.

His father, Charles Waller, founded Bumble Bee Boats in 1972 in Tullahoma, Tenn., and Stephen spent countless hours at the shop as a kid.

“When I was 10 or 11 years old, I remember rigging a motor and people were doing a plant tour and they were like, ‘Hey, look at that kid rigging that motor,’” Stephen Waller recalled. “Every day after school, I’d go to the plant. I went to a private school across the street so I’d walk across the street to the plant and stay there until somebody took me home.”

Boat building, you could say, is hard-wired into Waller’s fiber.

“Like it or not, it is,” he said.

The same can be said for Tim DePriest, who got his start as a teenager working at a marina owned by Joe Reeves, who later went on to found Hydra-Sports Boats. DePriest and Waller eventually crossed paths at Stratos Boats and they’ve worked together in various capacities for more than 12 years.

In an effort to apply all that he learned from his dad and in the other positions he’s held in the boating industry, Waller, DePriest and a third partner – the trio has a combined 90 years of experience across the saltwater and freshwater boat industries – decided a couple years ago to branch off on their own and launch a new bass boat company. After years of contemplation and months of planning, Falcon Boats was born in 2015 and the first boat bearing the Falcon name rolled out of the manufacturing facility in Newberry, S.C., in January 2016. Since then, Falcon has cranked out roughly 40 boats.

“We’re a lower-volume, service-focused company,” Waller said earlier this week. “We’re building almost semi-custom boats that are competitively priced.”

“We wanted to build a 21-foot boat that was rated for a 250 (outboard), that ran 70 (miles per hour) and that had everything in it a guy needed to go fishing,” DePriest added, “and be at a price point where we could make some money and a dealer could make some money.”

Waller and DePriest are very hands-on in the daily operations at Falcon, which employs 15 to 20 people depending on workload. DePriest has spent his career on the production side of the business and oversees the manufacturing at Falcon. Jimmy Metts, the third partner, also owns Tidewater Boats and is not as involved as Waller and DePriest.

The company has been self-funded so far and Waller said the plan is to grow at a controlled pace. The company currently offers two different models – the F205 and F215 – both with single- and dual-console options with a 99-inch beam serving as the boats’ signature feature.

“We’re working with slow, controlled growth and we’re growing as our dealer base grows and as our customers grow,” Waller said. “We’ve chosen not to go into debt for short-term gains.”

BassFan conducted a Q&A with Waller this week in an effort to learn more about Falcon Boats and how the owners see the company growing in the coming years.

BassFan: What was the motivation behind launching Falcon Boats?
Stephen Weller: It came from Tim and I working on boats together. We’re both from the bass boat world. We’re both middle Tennessee boys and grew up in the boat business. He’s been involved in the bass boat business his whole career. Through corporate boat building and how things have shaken out, we both landed in South Carolina. Most people know there are no bass boat manufacturers over here. In all of our years of working on boats, we’d see bass boats come in and we’d say, ‘We ought to do this because this is what we know best.’

We also took a lot of knowledge from working on other people’s boats and what were good ideas and bad ideas, and we tried to incorporate that into our products. For example, on some boats where it’s almost impossible to access a pump to service it, we said, ‘We will not make our boat like that,’ and we didn’t. We have everything where it is very serviceable in the event it needs to be.

We’re boat builders from way back and said, ‘We ought to do this.’ The original thought process was we had all of these people telling us what they were paying for their boats and we felt like that seemed like an awful lot of money for a bass boat. Our goal was to provide a lot of boat for a fair price.

BF: How long was it from when you had the idea to start a company until the doors opened?
SW: It’s been probably about 2 years, give or take. We bought the facility here in Newberry a little over a year ago and then got this stand-alone business for Falcon. January of 2016 is when we built our first boat in-house. We had worked on tooling for a long time.

BF: Any significance behind the name ‘Falcon?’
SW: We kicked around hundreds of ideas. I challenged people to write down 20 boat names and 19 or all of them had already been used. It was a name we came up with and we liked. We thought we could do something with it. It’s a catchy name and we knew we could make some nice logos with it. It was a process of elimination.

BF: In your view, what is the most important aspect of building a quality bass boat?
SW: One thing we’re seeing is people want to feel they belong and make a difference and help grow a company. That was very surprising to me and it was a pleasant surprise how people around here said, ‘Hey, I think it’d be cool to be part of something new and make a difference and help grow a brand.’

We’re still small enough to be very flexible. We try to accommodate everyone’s needs at this time. I can only assume that as the business grows, that ability to customize every boat might diminish, but right now we’re really hands-on for what our customers are asking for.

BF: What elements of the Falcon models have been influenced by your past experience in the industry?
SW: One thing we have done is we’ve taken our years of bass boat building history and tried to incorporate some of the saltwater influence Tim and I have. We had a lot of saltwater influence so we tried to incorporate some of the stringer grids and building techniques that we saw in the saltwater world into a freshwater boat. We also noticed the trending of the wider beams of some of the bay boats. That’s what made us go to the 99-inch beam, which is the widest bass boat in its class. It’s been a little saltwater flair thrown into the bass boat mix.

BF: What sets a Falcon Boat apart from other boats in its class?
SW: The 99-inch beam and our stringer system is unique and somewhat overkill. The other thing that we feel really sets us apart is we thought about how we built the boat in terms of the serviceability of the boat. It’s why we use rocker switches because if they go bad, the user can replace them or a dealer can replace them at a minimal cost. We have a tri-fold rear bilge battery access area. Everyone who’s seen it loves it. It’s because we’ve worked on boats and we know how hard it is to change a bilge pump or aerator pump or get to a Power-Pole pump. We tried to make the boat very, very user friendly from a service standpoint.

The 99-inch beam is another thing. Not only does it offer more room up front and all the boxes are a little bigger, it increases stability while fishing and improves the ride.

We’ve really tried to think outside the box on a couple of things. To be honest, there’s been some push-back because it is outside the box. It’s surprising that some people aren’t willing to think outside the box. We tried a non-carpet option that we got some push-back on and we tried opening our rod lockers in a really good way, but we’ve met a little bit of resistance. Everyone that’s tried the rod box that way has liked it.

BF: What’s been the most challenging aspect of getting Falcon up and running?
SW: Establishing a dealership network. That’s the only thing that Falcon is missing. We’re building a good product and we just need a distribution network out there. The other challenge is people haven’t heard of us. I’m not going to say that’s the biggest challenge, but it’s hard to get a dealer when a dealer doesn’t know you exist. We’re working on that by setting up some sales reps, but those have been the biggest challenges so far.

BF: Falcon currently builds two models, both with single- or dual-console trims. Any plans to expand the lineup?
SW: We are working on another model now. We plan on having a full family of boats within the next 2 years, if not sooner. A full family – what’s that mean? I think that’s an 18, a 19, a 20 and 21. I would love to have a multi-species one day, but don’t know if that’s in the works.

BF: If someone who’s reading this interview is looking for a new boat, why should they consider Falcon as an option?
SW: That’s a question I ask myself daily. We are a small, hands-on company where you can call and talk to the owners. At this point, we still know pretty much every customer who’s bought a boat. They still call me on weekends to see how I’m doing. We’re trying to build a tournament style boat at a fair price. I’m sitting here looking at [Elite Series pro] Brett Preuett’s boat and it’s as bad as any boat that’s out there. I told my wife the other day, ‘It’s probably the best boat you’ve never heard of.’

The ride and stability of this boat is really, really good. We’re not cutting corners anywhere. You could walk up to my boat and say, ‘Well, you’ve got this and this and this.’ It’s for a reason. We tried to use the ‘Keep It Simple and Functional’ approach. We’re building a good boat.