AvBuyer's Matt Harris caught up with NAFA member OGARAJETS’ Johnny Foster to discuss some of the key pre-owned aircraft sales market dynamics moving into 2024.
Closing 58 transactions representing nearly $700m in asset value, 2023 proved to be another record year for OGARAJETS, and Johnny Foster remains bullish for 2024 business opportunities.
For those following developments at the Atlanta, Georgia-based aircraft broker, this is not a coincidence. Just prior to the Covid pandemic in 2020, OGARAJETS entered its 40th year of operations, and marked the milestone by flipping its family business model on its head to strategically grow its small, boutique firm into an enterprise business.
“We spent more than a year developing a refined business model along with an aggressive 10-year strategic plan, which included a significant expansion of both sales and sales support, along with an underlying operating platform that would serve as a ‘common basis’ for all of our divisions to operate in sync,” says Johnny Foster, President and CEO of OGARAJETS.
“The onset of the pandemic allowed us the space to continue making investments and refinements without the interruption of transaction flow. However, by Q3 2020 the industry had made a complete 180-degree turn and has hardly looked back. With our new model fully deployed, we were well poised to take advantage of the skyrocketing market to come.”
Since 2019, OGARAJETS has grown its team from seven to 20 professionals, seen its annual transaction flow increase from 22 to 58 closings, and increased top-line revenue threefold.
Specifically in 2023 around 10% of OGARAJETS engagements involved representing clients in the acquisition of factory-new aircraft, Foster shares, while approximately 55% of the company’s exclusive engagements last year came from previous clients. “That translates into new client growth of 45%, which is a very exciting measure for us.”
This article was originally published by AvBuyer on January 31, 2024.