Company:  Bullfrog Outdoor

Markets:  Southern Michigan, Northern Indiana

Headquarters:  220 Club Course Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46814

Phone:  260-625-JUMP

Bullfrog Outdoor owns 40 structures in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana.   The company was founded by Charlie MacIntyre in 1998 after a successful career with 3M in Chicago and Fort Wayne.  Insider interviewed MacIntyre this week.

Charlie, what prompted your switch from corporate exec to entrepreneur?

I switched to entrepreneur to have more control over my own destiny and to be the boss.

How did you come up with the Bullfrog Outdoor name?

I came up with Bullfrog because I always liked frogs. It has been a wise decision because people now refer to me as “Charlie Bullfrog” and agencies like the creative edge, they never forget Bullfrog and those RFP’s keep coming.

Tell us about your plant.

The plant is mostly 12’ x 25’ displays, a couple 14’ x 48’ and some older wooden structures that I acquired. It is funny because 3M Started as a small sign plant and some of my inventory is actually 8’ x 12’ 3M structures that they abandoned when they started building monopoles in the “Big Cities”.

What’s the Northern Indiana Outdoor market like?

The market is mostly rural with a couple big cities (Fort Wayne, South Bend, Kalamazoo) dispersed throughout the market. Most of my inventory is on State or US Highways.  It has been much more difficult of late to build anything because of very restrictive sign ordinances for the bigger cities that limit growth.

What’s your attitude towards digital?

Digital displays are great. “I am an analog man in a digital world” and rejected digital signs until about 2 years ago and now have one in Angola Indiana and it is doing very well. They are expensive and must be built in the right location to be effective. Long term there will be many more around but I don’t see more than 3 to 5% of all inventory being digital moving forward.

Who’s digital sign and what’s been your experience?

Formetco.  It has been good.  Formetco provides great customer service.

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