View from the top…
Maclan Corporation was founded 44 years ago by Arnold “Arnie” Lane. The company manufactures  urethane and rubber products for a variety of industries. It manufactures new roller coaster wheels, relines used roller coaster wheels and custom builds multiple products for the mining industry. The company has expertise in urethane, rubber, metal fabrication, CNC machining, sandblasting and painting. Maegan Lane Wallace, granddaughter of the company’s founder, is at home spear-heading Maclan’s amusement sales and marketing. 

Accomplishments and affiliations…

• Member, International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions
• Member, AIMS
• Member, New England Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions
• Member, Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Association
• Sponsors the wheels on the train ride at Give Kids The World

Wallace loves her new adventure

LAKELAND, Fla. — Feeling like she had come to a significant cross road in her life without a map, Maegan Lane Wallace decided to step back and look around at her options. 

Everything really was going well. In her late 20s, Wallace and her husband had just moved from Orlando, Fla., to Treasure Island, Fla. Wallace, who had graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in business administration with a focus on marketing, had been working in property management. 

“Chad (Wallace) had just gotten a job in Treasure Island selling boats,” Wallace said. “It was a good job so we went.”

In doing so, however, she had to leave her job behind in Orlando. 

“I just really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” she said. “I just didn’t think I wanted to go back into property management.”

So when her dad invited her to go to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo in 2012, she decided to go.

Her father, Phil Lane Sr, who with his father, Arnold “Arnie” Lane, founded Maclan Corporation, based in Lakeland, Fla., had been traveling to the expo to show vendors the company’s products. 

“He said why don’t you just come and hang out in the booth,” Wallace said. “You can help us out.”

Wallace’s brother, Philip “J.R.” Lane Jr., had taken an interest in family business and was marketing to the amusement industry.  Wallace, on the other hand, as well as her two other sisters (Jennifer Evans and Rebecca Engle) had never really shown much interest in the company. Her younger brother, Richard Lane, does work at Maclan. 

“It was manufacturing,” Wallace said. “It was hot, sweaty  and dirty work. I remember him coming home and just being hot and sweaty. I didn’t want to do that.”

She doesn’t really have many memories of the plant from her youth. She does recall stopping by there with her mom, Vickie Lane, from time to time. What she does remember is taking dance lessons, playing soccer, boating, swimming and being a cheerleader in high school. 

But call it fate or call it destiny, that trip to IAAPA in 2012 changed her life.  

“I saw a whole different side of the business that week,” she said. “I saw how we supported so many other businesses. Everyone was so nice. I loved it.”

By the end of the week, she didn’t need a map to decide what road to take at that cross roads.

“I saw my spot,” she said. “I saw my next great adventure.”

By Monday morning of the next week, she was sitting in her father’s office presenting him with a written proposal that included a forecast where Maclan could go in the amusement industry, how it could get there and why her specific skills could work as a catalyst. 

It might not have been a perfect proposal, but it had the desired effect. Her dad gave her a chance and that was all it took. She dug in her heels. She had a lot to learn. 

“I spent a lot of time at the plant over the next couple of years,” Wallace said. “In fact, I would come over from Treasure Island on Monday and not go home again until Friday.”

She took work home. She had already begun to build some relationships in the industry and worked on others. 

 “I think if people believe in you, they will believe in what you have to sell,” she said. “And, of course, you had to have the product to back it all up.” 

She had no doubt about that. But she also felt she had come a little late to the party. 

“I felt like everyone already knew everyone else,” she said. “I needed to catch up.”

She was patient and things started happening. In 2016, Maclan became the authorized wheel vendor for Vekoma Rides Parts & Services BV. 

It was a broad move resulting in Maclan investing in advanced technological equipment and a 5,000-square-foot expansion to house it in 2017. The company now has 80,000-square-feet of manufacturing space on 10 acres with room to grow.

It also caused business to continue to grow.

In the middle of this success for Wallace, she and her husband made another very important decision. They were ready to start a family of their own, but Wallace worried.

“I felt that being pregnant and having children would negatively effect my business,” Wallace said. “I was afraid that people would no longer think I was capable, that my judgement would not be totally on them.”

Her first child, Leslie, was born in January 2016. That didn’t stop Wallace from attending the IAAPA trade show and being on her feet, in heels, the entire week. Her second child, Cayson, was born about 13 months later. And again Wallace was on the IAAPA Expo trade show floor.

“The  only difference that second year was that I made sure I brought a stool along,” she said.

And her fears about being a mom went unfounded. She continues to look at ways to expand, but not too quickly. 

“There are so many things we can do,” she said. 

—Pam Sherborne

This article appears in the JULY 2019 issue of Amusement Today.
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