Company: Waitt Outdoor
Markets: Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Eastern Nebraska, Missouri
Address: 4717 F Street, Omaha, NE, 68117
Phone: 402-330-2520
Email: mdelich@waittoutdoor.com
Waitt Outdoor owns billboards on interstate corridors throughout the Midwest including Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas. Waitt Outdoor is owned by Michael Delich and Norman Waitt. Norman Waitt also owns Bobby Jones Golf, real estate and is co-owner of Premier Bank of Omaha. Michael Delich has been president of Waitt Outdoor for 16 years.
Michael, what brought you to Waitt?
I was recruited by Norm to start a record company 20 years ago. This quickly evolved into a full blown media company which at one time had about 5 television stations, 75 radio stations and of course the billboard business. Over time the record company became a film company and the radio and television stations were sold off at which time I bought into the billboard company.
Tell us about the company’s plant.
The Waitt Outdoor plant has a nice mix of urban and rural markets that same to provide great stability to our revenue regardless of any specific economic event. While primarily steel, we acquired quite a bit of wood when we did an inventory swap with Fairway about five years in a move that allowed us both to consolidate our respective markets. We are rolling out digital units where the economics support it and the regulations allow it. We love digital. We have extensive inventory in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska and have warehouse/office operations in Omaha and Kansas City. While we continue to build new locations they are getting harder and harder to come by.
What’s the midwest outdoor market like?
The Midwest market (the three states we cover) has been solid and steady. We don’t have a large concentration of business from any one business sector. The majority of our business is local or regional although we hope to garner a little more national now that we finally have TAB audited numbers for our inventory. TAB was a commitment we made to the business last fall.
Who’s digital signs do you use and what have you learned about digital?
We have used Watchfire signs since the beginning. We love everything about them. They have held up well first and foremost. Their customer service in my humble opinion is unmatched in the industry. Their top management has always been accessible and more important interested in hearing from us about anything we feel important. So our experience with digital started with a very sturdy foundation. We had one digital bulletin manufactured by another sign company (publicly traded) that we got through and acquisition and our experience with them was just the opposite. Because of our radio background we approached the sale of digital differently than many others. We felt we could sell it more like radio or television and proved our theory as we installed the digital displays in Omaha. I think there are those that use a tri-vision mentality to what is a very robust broadcast medium and I think that results in any number of missed opportunities for the outdoor operator and their clients.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you entered the outdoor business?
As for your last question, I wish I knew just how quickly regulatory issues would be instituted in our markets. If I had known, we probably would have built even more aggressively than we did.
