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harbormaster
10-20-2008, 04:02 PM
The folks at Mercruiser corp seem to think that they have the only game in town. Fueding between reman, racing and Mercury seems to be rampant. This is all at the expense of their dealers and customers

Brunswick who owns Mercury lets them run themselves right into the ground. I hate to be negative but I hope they get what they deserve.
A lot of good people in the trenches for Merc will get the axe while the execs who are responsible for the decline will keep their jobs to the very end.
Its time for another company to rise up and produce a better quality product.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Friday lowered Brunswick Corp.'s (BC (http://www.marketwatch.com/quotes//bc): Brunswick Corporation long-term ratings, including its corporate credit rating and senior unsecured debt rating to BB- from BB+. The ratings were also placed on CreditWatch with negative implications, indicating the possibility of a further downgrade in the near term. "The ratings downgrade and CreditWatch placement are based on unprecedented economic pressures on recreational marine demand caused by consumer sentiment, high fuel prices, shrinking credit availability, and the effect of financial market instability in reducing non-financed sales," said Andy Liu, an S&P analyst. "We are also concerned about the effect of market conditions on Brunswick's dealer base," Liu added. S&P said although it had expected demand for recreational marine products to decline for the rest of 2008, the financial market turmoil has accelerated that decline in September.

BigGrizzly
10-20-2008, 05:59 PM
The truth is Merc has there fingers in too much pie. The Verado cost 110 mil to design. They have po GM and several others too

MOP
10-21-2008, 06:52 PM
Volvo and Bombardier should jump on the opportunity, we would finally have decent dependable products not ones with designed shelf life!

onesubdrvr
10-21-2008, 06:57 PM
Volvo and Bombardier should jump on the opportunity, we would finally have decent dependable products not ones with designed shelf life!

Phil,

I was JUST thinking the EXACT same thing,.... and it would be a PERFECT time for them to release some hi-po stuff that they may have been hiding because of the competition (cost of production vs cost of goods sold stuff) (if it existed), but regardless, I'd like to see them flood the market with what they've got.

I'd LOVE to see Volvo become a bigger player in the market

Wayne

BUIZILLA
10-21-2008, 07:01 PM
did anyone see that Brunswick stock was lowered to junk bond status today... and that was based on an 18% sales drop, they forecast the future sales drop to go to 40-50%... funny how they even mention Marine Max's order stagnation..

harbormaster
10-21-2008, 08:30 PM
As an insider I have seen some really stupid biz decisions by people. The media blames it on the boating market decline. I have customers waiting in line for stuff that I can't get because of mismanagement of supply chains. You have Mercruiser running themselves into the ground and Brunswick is not paying attention. Internal Whistle blowers are not listened to. They are fired immediately. Usually when a dealer calls merc corp with a problem they are usually responded to by the legal department. Its amazing. I know this from personal experience and also from talking to other merc dealers. I personally know of a handful of merc dealers that are not renewing their contract. They can still get a good deal on parts elsewhere for their customers without paying 3500 dollars a year to Merc.

BigGrizzly
10-22-2008, 10:10 AM
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but look at the Brunswick past history, Harly Davision, for instance. Eric Buel and I were talking years ago about the John Davidson buy back, He made millions on it. AMF hired a bunch of enthusiast, engineers hoping to run it into the ground for a tax deduction unfortunately with Eric and guys like Ronnie Alexander who fixed life long harly issues they actually made money. This is how Buel got it start. John bough it back at a profit for himself. Truth is Merc has been buying up OEMs at a large rate. They have their fingers into 89 different ones going way overboard. Sounds like the Donzi OMC years doesn't it.

apollo24
10-23-2008, 04:29 PM
I read last week that Brunswick has over $230 million in unsold inventory. We in the boat business are not exactly happy about all of Brunswick's junk soon flooding the wholesale market. There has never been a better time to buy a boat! However, if you own a two year old Sea Ray and want to sell it, you can forget about anything more than half what you paid for it. We can't get wholesalers to give us anything for our trades these days. And most people buying our boats (35'-75') have a trade, often times a Sea Ray. Tough times, tough times.

Donziweasel
10-23-2008, 04:54 PM
Who on the boards is a boat dealer, preferably a Donzi dealer? I know RickSE's father dabbled in it, but I don't think he messes with it much anymore.