  |
|
| Dennis Frandsen — the man from Luck who made his own |
|
|
| Wednesday, 15 July 2009 | |
|
Clint Riese Staff Writer Born in a town named Luck, local entrepreneur Dennis Frandsen knows what it’s like to be fortunate. Thanks to decades of effective leadership and wise acquisitions, he also knows what it’s like to be worth a fortune. Frandsen’s decorated business career will be recognized when he is inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame on July 23. The Wisconsin native has overseen Frandsen Corporation from downtown Forest Lake for the last 20 or so years, but he made a name for himself long before coming here. In fact, Frandsen found success right out of high school. Raised on a farm near Luck, WI, Frandsen earned just average academic marks at Frederic High School but, in 1951, became the first family member to graduate. Following orders from his father, he made one of his first trips to the Twin Cities, where he looked for work. He received a meager offer to become an office boy at 3M. “I went home and looked at it and realized that with what they were paying me I could barely get by, and I thought to myself ‘What do I want to do that for?’” he says. Logging efforts Instead, he decided to try to make a living logging on his family farm, as he had done since his junior year. His effort was buoyed by the presence of the Duncan Yo-Yo factory in Luck, which became a big purchaser of his hard maple. Paying his mother $10 per week for room and board, the 18-year-old soon had a truck and an employee. When he ran out of wood on the family farm, he negotiated with his neighbors. The 1953 purchase of 200 acres in Rush City precipitated his move to Minnesota. Frandsen heard that a Chicago woman had recently inherited the densely-wooded parcel of land, so he made his first visit to the Windy City. “I went to Chicago and didn’t know my way around – talk about naive – and she happened to live fairly close to the airport,” he says. He showed up on her doorstep unsolicited. “She wouldn’t let me in the door, I looked like such a kid,” Frandsen laughs. But he would not take no for an answer and left town with an agreement to pay $13,000 for the property. Securing that funding would take even more patience. His hometown bank in Luck, where his parents and grandparents did business, turned down his loan request. “I had done okay and had made a little money,” he said. “[The bank said] ‘Oh, no that’s out of our territory, that’s too much and we can’t do that.’ The banker gave me fatherly advice.” A Rush City bank also rejected Frandsen, but he eventually found a lender and cashed in big on the land. “I paid this lady what she wanted and it turned out it was a wonderful deal,” he says. “ It was a huge stand of timber.” Other ventures Another windfall came when Frandsen bought a farm on Rush Lake and developed most of it into 100 lake lots. He did the same with 1000 acres in Mora, and became a millionaire by the age of 30. In 1961, he helped a friend avoid bankruptcy by purchasing his tool-and-die company. The move brought Frandsen into the manufacturing industry, where eventually purchased several more molding companies which now total over $150 million in annual sales. “The plastic business just happened to be the right business to get in at that time,” he said. Frandsen fulfilled a personal vow and also got his feet wet in the banking industry when, in 1982, he purchased the Luck bank that rejected his loan request nearly three decades earlier. Frandsen Financial Corporation now owns 38 banks, including an office in Forest Lake, which combine to manage over $1.5 billion in assets. People often ask Frandsen how he came to be involved in such a range of enterprises. “Finance, accounting, human employees, customers,” he says. “All of that is in common in any business. People think it’s [so] much different.” He makes the process of acquiring profitable companies sound simple – look for well-established, well-managed businesses that are looking to sell and do not take on too much debt. “Fortunately I have been very conservative all my life and along the way have not borrowed huge sums of money,” says the Rush City resident. And so Frandsen Corporation continues to thrive in the midst of an economic downturn. In fact, not one of his companies has posted a loss in even one quarter during the current recession. “First of all, they’re very well established with many good customers, and even though our sales are down, our customers are still with us,” he says. “And we don’t have a lot of debt service.” Life today Between running a healthy empire, Frandsen raises crops and horses on the Luck farm he grew up and now owns and spends time with his wife, Jeanette, four children and 10 grandchildren. He also tries to make it to every Timberwolves game. He has owned a minority share of the NBA team since the franchise’s inception. “It’s not going very good,” he jokes. “It’s the only thing I have that’s not going very good.” Frandsen has been generous with his money over the years, giving to good causes in Rush City, Luck, Frederic and more. In time, 80 percent of his estate will be given to charity. Now in his 70s, Frandsen is not slowing down. He certainly could have retired decades ago if his heart was not in his work. Instead, he keeps wheeling and dealing from his corner office overlooking the waters of Forest Lake. “I’ve never had a job, never worked for anybody and I do what I want to do everyday,” he says. “And I like my businesses.” Social Bookmarking ...       |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|