Page 13 - Feb17TNT

In 1998, Mark used the proceeds from the sale of his first aircraft, a Piper Archer, to buy a bio-tech company headquartered in Mason City, a small town in north-central Iowa. Called Varied Industries Corporation, the company manufactured feed ingredients for dairy cows, beef cattle, poultry and other livestock.
“When I bought the company, I was trying to figure out how to bring prospective customers to Mason City for plant tours. I quickly determined the best way was to bring them here in a private aircraft,” he said.
For a small company in a big pond filled with large, billion-dollar companies — many of them household names — the ability to conduct a day trip for a plant tour became a competitive advantage. “Once we started picking up customers and bringing them to Mason City to see our technology and plant, our sales closure rate jumped to more than 90 percent. The big companies were discrediting us for being small, but once prospective customers got an up-close look at our facilities, they were convinced.”
Over next 15 years, Holt and his company owned more than a dozen aircraft, including a Saratoga, Cessna 310, Piper Mirage and a TBM 700 turboprop. With the desire to fly farther, faster and above the weather, he began his search for the ideal single- pilot jet. After studying the market and considering every airframe available, he finally found the perfect match: an Embraer Phenom 100.
“I wasn’t tied to one particular brand, so why not buy the one that appealed to me the best,” he said. “I liked that the Phenom was a clean-sheet design, and I was impressed by the Phenom’s ramp presence, robust design and roomy interior.”
An access door is embellished with an image of the flux capacitor that powered the DeLorean in Back to the Future.
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February 2017
TWIN & TURBINE • 11