Baja/Fountain Merger

[Carl C]

:eek!:Did Baja and Fountain really merge?:eek!::eek!: If so who is the controlling entity? Brunswick? Mercury? Reggie? Does anyone here know what's up?:confused: It's all over the other boards.

[mphatc]

http://www.examiner.com/p-134706~Brunswick_Announces_Sale_of_Baja_Marine_Ass ets_to_Fountain_Powerboats.html

Mario L.

[fasttrucker]

baja bought out checkmate.fountain bought out baja and is closing the ohio plant.They are done!........tuff times ahead for everyone.Nobody can afford gas,want to buy my 28zx?

[BUIZILLA]

baja bought out checkmate. where the hell did you get that info?

[mjw930]

where the hell did you get that info?

I was kind of wondering the same thing????

[mjw930]

I did a quick search and it looks like Checkmate was sold in March 2007 to Doug Smith, the founder and original owner of Baja.

Doug was a partner with Bill Combs back in the beginning of Checkmate but parted ways to form Baja. When Doug sold Baja to Brunswick he was effectively out of the boating business. I don't know if he stayed on with Brunswick after the sale.

Baja DID NOT buy Checkmate, Baja's original owner bought Checkmate.

[wannabe]

Checkmate and Baja used to be built in the same area and maybe even in the same town.

[Carl C]

Maybe there are just too many boat builders for the number of boaters. There are far fewer car makers supplying many, many more buyers. All of these boat companies can not survive but it's sad to see the small performance boats disappear. The jets and V-drives are nearly extinct. What will be left if we lose Checkmate, Glastron and Baja? Donzi Classics, a few egg-beaters and not much more.:(:(:( I'd love to see Fountain start a line of lake boats to replace the Bajas and compete with the Donzis. The small Bajas have been good looking boats lately IMO. Add Fountain quality and that should provide a marketable boat.

[Sweet little 16]

really think small under 24 foot performance boats are dissapearing????? survival of the fittest i would think there are still a ton that make great boats that baja and glastron can't hold a candle too superboat,warlock,eliminator too name a few when it comes to ledgers and bottom lines our beloved classics probably don't perform great at all, would not be surprised at all if it has been discussed at a board meeting to drop the classic line at one time or another in the lines history, business has a different outlook then we do to our hobby

[mjw930]

Checkmate and Baja used to be built in the same area and maybe even in the same town.

They are both in or around Bucyrus Ohio (North West Central part of the state, just about 50 miles south of Sandusky).

They share a common history as Bill Combs (Checkmate) and Doug Smith (Baja) were partners back in the early days of Checkmate. Doug split off and started Baja, Bill kept Checkmate. Doug eventually sold Baja which was eventually sold to Brunswick in a fire sale in the mid '90's.

[fasttrucker]

I did a quick search and it looks like Checkmate was sold in March 2007 to Doug Smith, the founder and original owner of Baja.

Doug was a partner with Bill Combs back in the beginning of Checkmate but parted ways to form Baja. When Doug sold Baja to Brunswick he was effectively out of the boating business. I don't know if he stayed on with Brunswick after the sale.

Baja DID NOT buy Checkmate, Baja's original owner bought Checkmate.
Sorry,guess I got that wrong.I went to the checkmate factory before I bought my donzi.I had a 16 banshee when I was a kid and thought that I would buy a checkmate.I had been in an 18 checkmate with a 200 merc.I went to the checkmate web site they make a 24ft with a 300hp merc outboard.Looks like a fun boat.

[mjw930]

I know it's off track but since we did go down the Checkmate path, here's a link to a local dealer that's done some really good things with the little eggbeaters ;)

http://liberatorfl.tripod.com/index.html

[wannabe]

Tons of 16 to 20 ft. checkmates in my area being so close to the plant. Lots of vintage seventies and eighties boats. I looked at the larger offshore late models and thought they were a bit rough in the detailing.

[mjw930]

Here's more press info:

http://www.boattest.com/Resources/view_news.aspx?NewsID=816

Captain America Buys Baja Marine - 03/26/2008


http://www.boattest.com/images-gallery/News/reggie_250.jpg Fountain is now king of high performance.


Reggie Fountain is now the planet’s largest builder of high performance boats.
According to Reggie Fountain, he has been in negotiations with Brunswick Corp., owner of Baja Marine, for almost a year. “This transaction was not forced on me,” Fountain said in an interview yesterday. “All of my lawyers, bankers, and advisors have said this is a good deal for Fountain Powerboats and I’m very happy with it,” he said.
Fountain says that the $5 million loss reported for last year wasn’t as bad as it sounds as a significant portion of it was for “book write-offs.” He said that last month the company bought back $1 million worth of its own stock, and he said that neither he nor Brunswick were any longer guarantors of the company’s debt.
“They wanted Fountain to have it and now I’ll be the largest exclusive user for Mercury Racing engines,” Fountain said.
[B]Future Plans
“We’re planning on only one sales and marketing staff so this acquisition will allow me to spread our overhead over many more units,” Fountain said. Baja Marine has 86 dealers and Fountain has 26, giving the combined company over 100 dealers, all specializing in high performance boats. That will undoubtedly be the largest dealer network in the category and with boats at all price points it may provide tough competition for the few remaining high performance builders.
Keeping 10 Baja Models
“We will let the best Baja dealers sell Fountains, and the best Fountain dealers sell Bajas, so long as there is not a conflict in territories,” he said. Reggie went on to say they he would discontinue the smallest Bajas and start with the 23 and go up from there, keeping in production about 10 of the company's existing 18 models.
In their best years Fountain booked $80 million in sales and Baja Marine booked $70 million, according to Fountain. The last several years, however, have been difficult for both companies. In fiscal 2007 Baja Marine was down 19% in annual sales to about 711 units, 84% of which were under 30’. Fountain was down 7% to about 350 units for the same period.
Two Different Ends of the Market
Fountain’s smallest sport boat is 33’ and its smallest fishboat is a 31’ center console. The company reported sales of $68 million in 2007, of which $28 million was from the fishboat product line.
The merger of these two quite different high performance product lines has many industry observers scratching their heads because Fountain has avoided low price-point boats, and that has been Baja’s market niche. Also, long ago Fountain gave up the small boat market where Baja has most of its business. Nevertheless, Reggie Fountain is unfazed by this apparent contradiction in market strategy saying that he looks forward to moving Baja owners up into larger, more expensive Fountains.
“People have been saying for years that we were going out of business, but we’re still here,” Fountain said. “In the meantime Cigarette, Wellcraft, Chris-Craft and other high performance builders have all undergone restructuring and ownership changes.”
Baja Marine employs about 285 people at its plant in Bucyrus, Ohio. Brunswick has announced that production will wind up there in May, 2008. Fountain said that he is currently considering incentive offers from a number of different cities and states and that he will make a decision in a few months as to where he will end up building the Bajas. “We have 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Washington, NC, and I can always put on a second shift,” Fountain said.
Fountain said he will change the name of the company to “Baja by Fountain.”

[Carl C]

Captain America, puhleeeze:rolleyes:. Good stuff though. It answers some questions.

[WingWing]

read this morning where the are closing the ohio plant where the baja's are made. I understand it is business, but I feel badly for the 300 or so people who are losing their jobs.:garfield:

[mjw930]

read this morning where the are closing the ohio plant where the baja's are made. I understand it is business, but I feel badly for the 300 or so people who are losing their jobs.:garfield:

There's lots of information out there now. The "announcement" that the plant is closing is corporate positioning to get the best possible concessions from Ohio to keep it open.

Watch this space because Reggie doesn't have enough capacity in NC to ramp up in time for '09 production without jeopardizing Baja's market share with a gap in production.

Sadly, I'm sure some will lose their jobs regardless.