Reply With QuoteIt will be interesting to see, if hard times come to the boating industry, what companies fold. Some of the renowned boats, might not have the most stable financial base, and the rob Peter to pay Paul strategy, might be their undoing.
I've been monitoring the spam section for several months now and everyone keeps saying "wait until the boat show and someone sees what a new one goes for, they will be all over ___________'s boat".
I find it a little hard to believe that the mfgr isn't feeling the pain too. Their sole purpose in life is to move boats, when the market was hot they were able to command a premium. I'm sure that even they realize the market has slowed so why would they not adjust their price to the market, just like the "re-sale" boats have to?
They have overhead to cover, a P&L to make and product to move. They probably have a more vested interest in selling a boat than the "re-sale" market does.
Am I out of my mind? It's supply and demand. Right now there is a lack of demand...and the market (new or used) has to adjust to it.
It will be interesting to see, if hard times come to the boating industry, what companies fold. Some of the renowned boats, might not have the most stable financial base, and the rob Peter to pay Paul strategy, might be their undoing.
I think they are playing the wait and see game. They will find out at the show how things are going to be.
There is no doubt that the home appreciation that has fueled sales for the past few years is over. Hopefully the builders who have been selling boats at a good premium banked a little bit of that money and didn't blow it all on new Rhinos and motorhomes.....
If sales are slow, they likely will lower prices to get things going. but the prices of new boats is retarded, simply out of hand over the top. I think the used market has a lot of good values right now.
Has anyone picked up a boat trader lately its as thick as a phone book.
If the boating industry is like the fire sprinkler industry which I am a estimator for...they should be fine. 1 to 2 years ago we were adding a 30 -40% mark up on our bids. I have been told by my boss because we have so much back log that we are to bid at least a 60 to 70% mark up. Our engineers, shop guys and field guys have been on O.T. for months. When it slows down we will reduce our overhead and profit. You do the math on a 50k job the price goes up about 15k.
If the boating industry is like the fire sprinkler industry which I am a estimator for..
I'm in a similar industry, we monitor the valves on your systems. The difference is our industry is pretty much recession proof. Code mandates sprinkler systems and the monitoring of them. Society creates the demand for my company's products and services.
Boating/RVs/toys in gerneral are based on discresionary income, there is no requirement for people to own a boat so the manufactures are more vulnerable to the current econimic conditions.
Time will tell...
Sorry, theres no code to keep the boat builders in business.....that said..I can think of a couple of guys who may have some problems this year. On eof them is DCB. Thats right..he has positioned himself in a spot where if you don't have a quarter mill to throw down, he has nothing to offer. We'll have to see, but I predict that boat show pricing stays right where it always has been....just a bit below retail.....
My bet is that the overall economy is ok but too many people are cashed out every week. Dept is way too high to continue and I think most people in that boat are tired of the pressures of payments for things they only use part time.
I dont think DCB will have much problems compared to most other builders...... dcb has positioned themselves to where they hold an elite spot in the market, such as mercedes / bmw... maybe even ferrari? and all of those companies have been selling cars long before the housing market boom. I think the majority of people that buy a boat like DCB are more along the lines of true ballers... not your home equity line / refinance ballers (even though a couple of those did sneek through and pick some up). true ballers will continue to buy sweet shit because they dont depend on the value of their home... rolls royce just put out a 4 million dollar car and the first two years of production are already sold out!! so there is real whealth out there.
but now on the other hand... I see alot of other builders gonna feel the hurt, and hopefully prices do come back down to reality, because there is deffinantly less money at peoples fingertips right now. most people who refi'd didnt care how they spent the money!! they had 100k cash in hand ready to blow... when on most average their savings/ checking accounts never saw over 5k before the housing boom!
Dont read anything into this OK, but I noticed yesterday that Domin8tor is gone, at least from the building they were in, Signs, boats and all?? Maybe they moved to a new location but there were no signs indicating this. It is a tough business for sure!!!!!! NSF
Posting Permissions