Company: Stott Outdoor

Markets: Northern California, Nevada and Oregon

Headquarters: PO Box 7209, Chico, CA  95927.

Phone: 888-342-7868

Stott Outdoor has been in business since 1949.  The Company is based in Chico and services Northern California as well as parts of Nevada and Oregon.  The company operates bulletins, posters and a transit advertising business.

President, CEO Jim Moravec is an OAAA Board Member and Insider had the opportunity for a quick interview.

Jim, you operate in three western states.  How has Covid impacted Stott Outdoor and have you noticed any differences by state?

The early days of Covid were certainly uncertain and a bit scary. Many advertisers with whom we have done business with for years were being ordered to close. Posters and Transit were impacted to the greatest extent as those products have many contracts for short time periods promoting events ranging from auto racing to bridal shows and those events were simply canceled. Directional bulletins were impacted to the least extent. The impact was more measurable by product than geography. We worked hard and by the 4th quarter had righted the ship and actually exceeded our previous years Q4 numbers. That trend is continuing as we move into 2021

You also operate both a billboard and a transit operation.  Was one segment impacted more than the other by the Covid outbreak and restrictions?

We operate in small to mid size transit markets and the consumer of the advertising is not so much the users of transit as it is the people in cars being exposed to the messaging. That said as some transit systems scaled back operation our advertising was not on the street with the same level of frequency prompting credits being issued to advertisers. This was for a short period of time and transit agencies worked with us in reducing payments. While our transit was impacted to a greater extent we have found that it has largely recovered.

Did you have the opportunity to grow or make any changes to your inventory in 2020?

Sure, we are always growing and gaining additional inventory that is a focus. Did some construction of new bulletins and deployed some new digital.

I noticed that you have a change in title and the Company has made a General Manager hire?  Tell us about the change and introduce us to Korbe.

Yes we are making some changes. My involvement will continue on big picture matters however I am scaling back from day to day, hour to hour management of the company. I really like the business however look forward to putting the long days and weeks behind me. I was very fortunate to connect with Korbe Palmer who is now taking the reins as the companies third General Manager since its founding in 1949. Korbe has the experience, skills and work ethic to be a great leader and continue the growth of the company. Korbe gained good experience in Seattle, however I was most impressed with his time in Casper WY, a plant (pre Lamar) I was GSM of some 20 plus years prior to Korbe being GM there. A very interesting connection. ? Stott Outdoor has a very bright future with Korbe at the helm. Our entire team is excited to have him here.

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