marine industry professionals
Boat sales dip slows in fourth quarter
In the fiberglass 14-foot-and-up segment, sales decreased by 17.8 percent in the fourth quarter on 7,089 units. Sales fell 14.8 percent in the 30-foot and-up segment on 969 units.
Aluminum sales fell by 21.7 percent in the quarter. Unit volume was 6,239 units.
Pontoon sales declined 24.5 percent on 1,230 units. Ski/wake boat sales dropped 32.4 percent on sales of 466 units. Deckboat sales were down 27.5 percent on sales of 360 units. Jet boat sales dropped in the quarter 35.5 percent on 187 units.
The PWC market posted a decline of 34.3 percent on 1,890 units.
Fiberglass boats over 30 feet showed the lowest decline of all the boat segments as surplus inventory was purged from the market. The rest of the segments continued to reflect lackluster retail activity in the quarter.
Information is based on registration data from 49 states, or 99.5 percent of the U.S. boat market. Montana is not reporting because of data entry delays in the state.
— Aarn D. Rosen
National marine sales manager
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"Boat sales dip in fourth quarter" is in your news letter from yesterday. Trying to grow a new business in the marine industry is tuff right now. Do you have any information on what the rest of the market is doing? (pre-existing boat sales and accessories ect.) It sure would be helpful!
Hard times, no financing, smaller market???? It's as good or as bad as you want to make it. There are dealers making money, they made the hard decisions early and jumped on other profit centers which in most cases were getting re-pops from the banks.
Over my decades in manufacturer sales I can't remember a single time that I was able to Make a dealer buy boats from me or my companies (and I sold for the biggest) there were times that I was able to justify the purchase or I offered a discount but they didn't have to take the product. There were times when a dealer was not marketing the product or selling enough based on the sales in that market of the competition so a change might be made???
If everyone would get off the idea that "IT's COMING BACK" everyone would be better off. It's not coming back we are at the center of our new market and from this point forward it will mean building our business. New inventory amounts are necessary, programs changed, market to better quality of buyer.IE. What does your current display look like, bathrooms, access to boats etc. Look at the display of anything else in the World that sells toys in the 10,000 to 100,000 dollar range. When was the last time anyone did any sales training or product training, I was at Miami and it was disapointing how I was treated by SalesPeople????
Yes we can complain that it is horrible but what are we doing to improve and diversify are business's?
Let's look at improving,
CJ
In May, 2009 I did some research for a client of ours using data from SoldBoats.com. The results are informative, but not necessarily representative of the whole market. I compared the number of units sold, year-to-date, in the U.S., 40' - 42', $175,000 - $225,000, for the corresponding periods over the last ten years.
Sailboat sales peaked five years earlier (2004) and dropped by 42.9%. Powerboat sales peaked four years earlier (2005) and dropped by 74.7%. Combined sales peaked four years earlier (2005) and dropped by 64.7%.
If you pay attention (as I do) to David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and current president of the Peter G. Peterson foundation, you can presume we are in for a long, very difficult period of fiscal turmoil. This is the first year that Social Security will pay out more than it takes in. Medicare and Medicaid are in worse condition. And, Congress is gridlocked. This is not a pretty picture for a recovery in yacht sales.
I have downsized my company to a very small, efficient, operation in anticipation of hard times ahead.
Every number can be spun if you do it right. The media is always eager for a positive spin. Try this for a headline:
Sales Still Crashing, But at a Lower Rate of Descent; The Ground is Near!
Mr. Lager's comments are accurate, but the decline was greater in 08 than his numbers indicate. I would guess the numbers show that 09 Q4 sales are somewhere well below 50% of 07's.