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Fernando on the downside of rapid growth

Fernando Aguerre, co-founder of Reef.

By TIFFANY MONTGOMERY
March 27, 2008 12:06 PM

I had an interesting interview with Reef co-founder Fernando Aguerre awhile back. There are some gems from the discussion that I haven't published yet, so I thought I'd share his thoughts on an interesting topic: growth.

In the audio clip, Fernando talks about why he and Santiago decided to sell Reef. He has an interesting take on the downsides of companies growing too big, too fast.

Santiago, Fernando Aguerre

Fernando and his brother, Santiago, far left, founded the Reef sandal company in 1985. It grew to well over $50 million in revenue (that's an estimate. Fernando would not disclose numbers) and the brothers sold 80 percent of Reef to financial investors in 2002.

VF Corp. bought Reef for $188 million in cash in 2005, according to VF's company filings. The Aguerres sold their remaining 20 percent at that time.

Santiago and Fernando are still actively involved in the industry, particularly in charitable causes.