When J Hurless and Monty Anderson acquired Reeder- Trausch Marine in 2018, the Rockville, Ind., dealership was a three-person operation generating $375,000 in annual revenue. Today, the company is one of the fastest-growing marine retailers in the region, posting more than $24 million in revenue from that same location and fueling an aggressive expansion strategy built on culture, training and customer-first innovation.
The dealership’s trajectory is emblematic of a new generation of operators reshaping regional marine sales — scaling by investing heavily in people and processes while keeping operations rooted in service and transparency.
With 28 employees now at the Rockville location, the company has opened another location. In 2024, Reeder-Trausch Marine acquired Denny’s Marina in Indianapolis, rebranding the operation as Reeder-Trausch Indy. “In one year since we bought it, we have taken the business from $10 million in 2023 with 11 employees to $22 million and 29 employees in 2025,” Hurless says.
On the Water
Reeder-Trausch Marine offers storage, detailing, hauling and maintenance — functions that many regional dealers perform, but that Hurless positions at the center of the company’s long-term value proposition. The dealership also represents a roster of strong brands: Mercury, MerCruiser, Suzuki, Yamaha, Bennington, Avalon, Four Winns and Lund. These product lines anchor much of the company’s annual sales volume for a broad customer base, with pontoons, fishboats, runabouts, outboards and sterndrives.
The company’s delivery and handoff protocols also stand out. “We have dedicated on-the-water delivery captains,” Hurless says. “Our guys take customers on the water and show them everything on their newly acquired boat. They also instruct them on how to take the boat off and put it back on the trailer.”
By emphasizing personalized training and relationship-driven engagement throughout the ownership cycle, the dealership reinforces a theme that runs through much of its strategy: creating confidence for new boaters and elevating the ownership experience for longtime ones.
Core Values
Reeder-Trausch Marine’s internal culture is built around the core values of teamwork, customer service and accountability. “We got buy-in from the staff by asking them what some core values should be for a business, and voting on the top three,” Hurless says. “We give shout-outs to staff members who show each core value, to boost morale.”
Recognition and advancement are also central to the company’s structure. Hurless says multiple team members have entered the company’s Junior Leader progression program, which supports internal development. “Tech expertise can be challenging to find,” he says, “but we pride ourselves on developing our team, training them to meet the proper requirements and leading them to reach their full potential in the marine industry.”
The past 12 months delivered significant successes across sales and staffing, he says. “We sold over 85 boats at the spring boat show and over 45 in the fall boat show this past year,” Hurless ays. On the operations side, he points to a rising number of staff members reaching personal career milestones, including those entering leadership training tracks.
The company’s biggest challenge of the past year, Hurless says, has been synchronizing processes across a two-store enterprise: “Going from one store to two and making sure processes mirror and align at both locations has been steady work.”
Making a Mark
Digital marketing has become one of Reeder-Trausch’s strongest engines for growth. The dealership runs Google Ads, TV streaming and digital campaigns, and maintains an active social-media presence, but one platform stands above the rest.
“The most successful ones are Meta Ads, where we get an average of 750,000 impressions every month,” Hurless says. “These allow us to target what the person is interested in, ZIP codes, age range and more.”
Reeder-Trausch Marine has also recently implemented video messaging as a customer-service tool. “This allows us to show certain items on the topic of the video,” Hurless says. “It also allows us to show a face to the voice, so the customer is more familiar and comfortable with us.”
The company also recently implemented a daily priority meeting where staff review every active customer and every unit on the radar, aligning on challenges and solutions. The result is a tightening of operations and a more cohesive customer experience across departments.
Market Direction
Hurless identifies three major forces shaping boating engagement today: transparency in the buying process, ease of getting and staying on the water, and high-quality indoor storage options to protect the customer’s investment. To work with those forces, Reeder-Trausch is exploring more transparent pricing, developing more on-the-water and storage facility services, and building new indoor storage facilities.
“The biggest risk that we can take is not taking any risk at all,” Hurless says. “If we do not adapt and change to the market and meet our customer where they are at, then chances are someone will.”
The next six months are expected to be busy for Reeder-Trausch Marine, with expansion efforts underway. “We are constantly looking for new acquisitions in the marine industry,” Hurless says. The company has launched a business development center at one location and plans to replicate it at the Indianapolis store soon.
“I see the dealership making an even bigger transition to customer focus,” he says about the coming year, envisioning more delivery captains and customer-care representatives. He also anticipates a more competitive environment as brands vie for consumer trust and dealer partnerships.
