By Mike Davin, Online Editor, Boating Industry — Every month, we publish the results of Info-Link Technologies Inc.’s Bellwether Report, which shows a rolling change in unit sales for various powerboat categories. (See the most recent report here or view the charts here.) Read more >>
Tags: Marine Dealers, Recession
By Mike Davin, Online Editor, Boating Industry — The news coming out of Fountain Powerboats hasn’t been good for a while, but this week it got a little worse when the company filed for bankruptcy. In its heyday, Fountain employed more than 450 workers; today that number has dwindled to about a dozen. Read more >>
Tags: bankruptcy, Recession
By Peter Granata, President, Granata Design and the Marine Design Resource Alliance — There’s a new bandwagon pulling into town, and if you’re too busy ducking bullets you may not notice it. If you hang around the boating industry long enough, you’re bound to experience a cyclical downturn. This most recent version has to be the worst since 1980, and many agree that this one is the worst, period. Nonetheless, the point is that it is cyclical. The industry will come back, although it’s probably going to look different than it was. Read more >>
Denny Hecker is widely known in the Minneapolis/St. Paul-area. A long-time auto dealer based here in the Twin Cities, Hecker’s career changed abruptly this year when, under the pressure of the economy, his numerous area businesses collapsed dramatically. Over the course of the last few months, Hecker’s empire has come crashing down around him in unimaginable fashion. According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, this is a short list of his experiences: he’s been sued by Chrysler, Ford and GM (the latter of which eventually dropped the case); 21 of his stores were foreclosed on; he’s the subject of a criminal investigation; he’s being sued for alleged fraud; several of his properties have been raided by investigators; and he has been charged with DWI. Read more >>
Tags: Auto Industry, MDCE, Recession
As evolved as humans are, there’s still plenty of evidence that we’re driven in part by animal instincts. Just look at our reaction to the threats posed by the downturn. Many of us, like possums, have responded by curling up and playing dead. We’ve cancelled all unnecessary activities, we’re spending as little money as possible to keep the business alive, and we’re waiting for the threat to pass. Others of us are like the big jungle animals. When we’re threatened, we stand taller, we beat our chests, we roar in the face of fear. But neither of those strategies has been very effective against this particular threat. Read more >>
Tags: Recession
Add another letter to the alphabet economists have created to try and predict the economic recovery. I was familiar with the “V-shaped” pattern historically followed during most downturns – a sharp decline followed by a quick rebound – as well as alternatives that more closely resembled “U” or “L” – the latter being a period of sustained stagnation. But some experts are beginning to believe “W” is the route our economy is most likely to follow on its way to recovery. (And no, that’s not some sort of slam on the guy who typically gets the blame for putting us in this mess…). Read more >>
Of all the talk about this recession, there’s one question, of course, that no one can really answer: When will it end? But the most important question to our businesses right now may be: Has it already ended? The answer to that, according to a news report I read last night, might surprise you. Read more >>
At the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo last November, Brunswick CEO Dusty McCoy said [and I'm paraphrasing here] that while many of the recessions the U.S. economy has endured in the past are V-shaped (the economy drops quickly, bottoms out, then rebounds steeply as well) he expects our current recession will be more U-shaped – meaning we won’t experience that quick bounce back. McCoy also said at the time that the economy was still on the left-hand side of the “U” and had not yet bottomed out. Where the economy stands today, some five months later, is a matter open for debate (if you would like to weigh in, please post a comment below), but if the latest Beige Book report issued the U.S. Federal Reserve is any indication, there are signs the economic freefall we’ve been in seems to be slowing, at least in some parts of the country. Read more >>
My four-year-old son broke his arm playing in the yard last week. While he was incredibly brave in the hours and days that followed, it has changed him. As the pain has receded, he’s begun thinking out loud about how he’ll avoid breaking something else, as have his father and I. We want him to go back to having fun like he used to, but none of us wants to go back to the hospital anytime soon. The boating industry is in a similar situation. While I’m not sure the pain is receding yet, we know it will, at least to some degree. And we’ve all been thinking, whether to ourselves or out loud, about how we and our businesses will change as the industry rebounds. Read more >>
I offended a dealer in one of my last magazine columns. This dealer, or former dealer as it may be, recounted the unprecedented conditions of the economy and, more specifically, the marine industry when he outlined how his business has succumbed to external pressures. He noted the drought boaters and businesses face in his home state of Georgia; $4-a-gallon gas; the housing bubble that burst; banks that won’t lend (and severe interest rate hikes by those who remain), and the ever-present doom and gloom found throughout politics and media as a culmination of forces that his business could not withstand. This, despite focus his business on providing value and customer service and reinvesting more than $1 million into his business in recent years. Read more >>
Tags: Marine Dealers, Recession
