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Brunswick to sell Sea Ray

  • Thread starter Thread starter krush
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 17
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ouch. Thats going to suck here.
 
Wait and see what happens.
 
So wait,... Brunswick paid $75 million more for Bayliner than they did for Sea Ray? :confused:
 
Price will go up.
 
Boatsb said:
ouch. Thats going to suck here.
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tremendous hit.
You can bet your bottom dollar its loosing big money. Not only did Brunswick purchase sea Ray but a lot of bass boat
companies. To exclusive hang those merks on but i think Yamaha is eating their lunch especially in the salt water market.
I wonder if when they purchased sea ray the company was using or building a lot of inboard out boards with the merk cruiser
Not so many now. The bigger boats are using diesel i expect not only boat sells are down but OMC is taking a hit on
profits. I did not look at the stock gut i would bet its slowly sinking along with the boats. Might be a good time to short it...

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bc
 
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We have 3 or 4 of their facilities in the area and I'm sure whoever buys it will combine their resources and screw us here locally.

All that R&D they do here and they couldnt figure out how to make a boat at a profit.
 
It seems that just about all boat builders are having problems. Been going on for quite a few years and
I believe the business in general will shrink much more before it recovers somewhat. IMO there are
several important factors at work here... One is that the cost of new boats and boating in general has
become too expensive for the average family. While purchasing a boat may be within someone's
budget, all the other costs of ownership such as maintenance, dockage, insurance etc start adding up
and get to the point that the folks that would have gotten into boating a couple of decades ago simply
figured that there are other less expensive family activities available. Another major factor is that the
boats built during the 60's through today are almost all fiberglass. Therein lies another problem as they
last much longer than the wood boats of years ago. Lots of DIYers buy old boats and fix them up whereas
years ago a boat 10 or 15 years old probably had so much wood rot that it wasn't worth fixing. Of
course the fact that the average working stiff has not had salary increases sufficient to keep up with rising
prices and discretionary spending is impossible. Most of us Hatteras owners probably would not buy a
new model of our existing boats because of the cost, but the old one's are solid enough to rebuild
into like new (or whatever level) condition for a lot less than new, which is probably why Hatteras
won't build our size boats today.



Walt
 
The center console market is insane now, though....insane as in way overpriced. Freeman has like an 18month backlog and people sell their slots!

Early 2000's in the Sam's club there was a 19foot bayliner for $9,999 including trailer. That boat is probably 20-30k now???
 
I agree with a lot of the comments made here. In the 70’s I worked for Columbia Yachts(please do not judge me). We sold a 43 footer for $39,900. The ratio of that price to income was way lower than any 43 footer to today’s income. As bad as the quality of that boat was, it allowed a lot of people to participate in boating, and surprisingly there are still a lot of those boats still going strong today. John
 
My 30,000 foot view on bigger boat manufacturing is that the big corporations and hedge funds of today just are not good at it. Think we would all agree that Viking is the premier American non custom boat manufacturer (50 units plus) of today and it's because it's a private business run by a hands on family. They can make decisions on the spot with out having to reach out to executives at some remote ivory tower for permission.
 
Cricket said:
My 30,000 foot view on bigger boat manufacturing is that the big corporations and hedge funds of today just are not good at it.............. They can make decisions on the spot with out having to reach out to executives at some remote ivory tower for permission.
Click to expand...

I have said, and will say until I die: a small businessman that runs and grows a business has more brain power, strategic vision, agility, and acumen than a big company CEO or PE manager will ever have. The small man does not have access to capital, he doesn't have shareholders he can screw over and still get his golden parachute. He doesn't have a huge corporate back-office to do all his busy work. etc etc.

This opinion is confirmed time and time again when a profitable business that has been around for 50+ years (say a boat maker, RV, or other manufacturer) is acquired by a hedge fund or PE firm and goes bankrupt within 2-5 years. Many times the PE guys just want to load the new company up with debt, suck out commissions, and don't care. It's sad for the employees.

I wouldn't call Sea Ray a "small business", but look at the history of it. From what I've read, created and owned by one man until selling to Brunswick in the 80's.
 
I read that Sea Ray had been losing money for several years, and sales projections for the coming year were dismal at best.

They were very successful with brand loyalty which allowed a new owner to purchase a 16' runabout and move up to whatever his/her billfold would allow. It was a big club, and many people wanted to be a part of it.

I've owned several and am still a fan of the older boats, but this new stuff is just plain fugly and terribly expensive. My guess is, by the time the faithful followers lost their asses on their third jump in size, they were over it. Sheep can only be sheared so many times.
 
Cricket said:
My 30,000 foot view on bigger boat manufacturing is that the big corporations and hedge funds of today just are not good at it. Think we would all agree that Viking is the premier American non custom boat manufacturer (50 units plus) of today and it's because it's a private business run by a hands on family. They can make decisions on the spot with out having to reach out to executives at some remote ivory tower for permission.
Click to expand...
This is so true. I have read where the Healy's are really connected to their employees, meeting and greeting whenever they can.But the best description I have heard is how they will address an problem soling issue, a new product or a customer issue without giving a finance person a seat at the table. They will make a decision based on what is right for the company and then deal with the cost after they have determined the resolution.Try that in bean counter driven corporate America where CFO's have too much control solely based on their profit/loss spreadsheets. Kills the necessary entrepreneurial spirit from the get go.
 
There is one exception to all of this and that was Harley. They were bought out by AMF and somehow it went private again.
It's a sure bet that won't happen here and I completely agree with the notion the industry has priced itself out of existence.
For example, it was running us 17K a year to keep Freedom parked at the dock! Going to the Bahamas increased that substantially but that's a given. The basic costs of ownership let alone financing, has crushed boating.
 
Dan Mapes said:
There is one exception to all of this and that was Harley. They were bought out by AMF and somehow it went private again.
It's a sure bet that won't happen here and I completely agree with the notion the industry has priced itself out of existence.
For example, it was running us 17K a year to keep Freedom parked at the dock! Going to the Bahamas increased that substantially but that's a given. The basic costs of ownership let alone financing, has crushed boating.
Click to expand...
Agree completely, cost of ownership will affect sales and run many out of boating. We have paused to rethink just how much boat to buy. Inventory is low for certain sizes and years. Have seen price reductions lately on several over priced boats. Many boats listed have a lot of deferred maintenance and when you run the numbers at current cost it adds up fast and often ko's the deal.
 
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