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Bruce Oakley history
Bruce Oakley company history timeline
Looking ahead Moving forward, it is Oakley’s goal to maintain growth organically—expanding, as we’ve done since founder Bruce Oakley bought his first truck in 1968, wherever our customers need us.
Something of a motorcycle enthusiast, Jannard attended the University of Southern California in 1970.
And in 1977 (shortly after the completion of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System), he bought the 20-acre site, in North Little Rock beside the Arkansas River, where Oakley’s headquarters is located today.
Gradually, the company’s barge business grew to the point that, in 1980, Oakley purchased half-a-dozen or more new barges—then established a second Arkansas River location at Morrilton, Arkansas.
Bruce Oakley’s son Dennis officially joined the family enterprise in 1982, at the age of 18.
In 1983 Oakley began selling ski goggles.
1984: Company enters the sunglass market.
In 1990 the company had net income of $7.7 million on sales of $68.6 million.
Agassi wore Oakley's Eye Jackets brand, which were introduced in December 1994.
By the end of 1994, the company made eight lines of sunglasses and three lines of goggles, accounting for a 13 percent market share of the United States premium (over $30 retail) sunglasses business.
Sales for the first half were 37 percent above sales for the first half of 1994.
Starting with the basic Blades brand, which retailed for around $110 plus $60 for each additional coated lens in 1995, the company developed other product lines.
Oakley had some 320 patents issued or pending worldwide, plus 249 registered trademarks, as of 1995.
Oakley held its first-ever annual meeting for shareholders at El Toro, California, in June 1996.
Closing out a very eventful year, three shareholders filed a class-action suit in December against Jannard and Michael Parnell, Oakley's two top executives, charging they misrepresented the state of the company's operations to take advantage of Oakley's secondary stock offering in June 1996.
Pursuing an aggressive strategy to achieve direct distribution in its international markets, Oakley began such an operation in Japan in May 1997.
In July 1999 Oakley established its first retail outlet, opening the first O Store in Irvine, California.
By 1999 sales to Sunglass Hut would account for only about 23 percent of Oakley's sales.
The year 1999 turned out to be a turbulent one for Oakley as the shoe line, which was not yet profitable, proved to be a drag on earnings.
By late 2000, meanwhile, the good news coming out of the Foothill Ranch headquarters sent the company stock soaring; it tripled in value from its level of a year earlier.
Revenues for 2000 increased 41 percent, hitting $363.5 million, and profits skyrocketed 83 percent, to a record $51.1 million.
By the end of 2001 there were two Oakley Vaults along with four O Store locations, with plans in place to expand these concepts primarily in the California, Texas, and Florida markets.
In February 2002 Oakley established an office in Brazil to facilitate the shipping of products to that nation.
Bruce Oakley, Ph.D., professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, will retire from active faculty status on May 31, 2003.
Which is why Bruce continued coming into the office on a regular basis until the day he died, in 2006, at the age of 70.
In 2011, Oakley acquired Jantran—a river towing company operating 20+ tow boats on the Arkansas, Mississippi and Red Rivers.
In early 2014, Oakley acquired Johnston's Port 33 in Catoosa, Oklahoma.
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Bruce Oakley may also be known as or be related to BRUCE OAKLEY INC, Bruce Oakley, Bruce Oakley Inc, Bruce Oakley, Inc. and Oakley Grain, Inc.