32,500 REASONS TO MEET FUEL DEADLINE p. 62
® INSIDE: It’s a new
company with a
combined boatbuilding history
of more than a
century. Rinker
and Godfrey join
forces as Nautic
Global Group. p. 28
THE BOATING BUSINESS NEWSPAPER VOL. XLIV, NO. 10 MAY 2007
$5.00
www.tradeonlytoday.com
No subprime spillover
Lenders say boat loan default rates are low,
money is plentiful and competition is strong
By Gary Beckett
ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS OBRION
go, in mid-April. “But we’re going into
our best selling time — April, May and
With the spring/summer selling season June — and sales at most dealerships are
just around the corner, the last thing just terrible.”
most marine dealers want to worry about If retail lenders tighten standards and
in this already lackluster sales environ- cut back on lending activities, because of
ment is a lack of available financing for a lack of available funding sources,
retail boat loans. Many question whether Keeter worries that that could push some
problems in the much larger home mort- retailers over the edge. “I really don’t
gage market — specifically, the subprime know what will happen then,” he said.
home lending category — will force ma- To those concerns, however, marine
rine lenders to turn down the spigot on lenders respond with a loud-but-clear,
retail marine lending. “Fear not.”
“We haven’t experienced that yet,” said They still have plenty of money to
Phil Keeter, president of the Marine Re- lend to qualified buyers. Credit stan-tailers Association of America, in Chica- continued on Page 32
Minnesota retailers seek legislative protection
With boat sales down, dealers say manufacturers are squeezing out underperformers
By JoAnn W. Goddard / Associate Editor
j.goddard@tradeonlytoday.com
Gardys Sports Center in Stillwater, Minn., has been
selling Crestliner Boats since 1974.
That is until recently, when parent company
Brunswick notified Gardys’ owner his contract would
not be renewed.
“They walked in one day and said, ‘You’re no longer
a dealer,’ ” said Joel Thomas, who acquired the business from his father nearly three years ago. “It was —
at the time — detrimental.”
Gardys sells a variety of other products — Scout,
Ebbtide, Crest pontoons and a full line of Kawasaki products — but he says Brunswick’s decision to discontinue
doing business with him still stings. Crestliner represented about 20 percent of the dealership’s sales, he says.
“After 17 years of doing business and
building up a client base, they didn’t
renew me because I was a multiline
dealer.”
— Steve Van De Putty
It is an all-too common scenario, according to retailers.
“You’re seeing a lot of dealers not getting renewed,”
said Phil Keeter, president of the Marine Retailers Association of America.
Faced with sluggish sales, he says manufacturers are
scrambling to find dealers who can take more prod-
ucts and drive more sales.
“Rather than working with what they’ve got, they
look for someone better,” said Keeter.
Bills pending in the Minnesota House and Senate
would regulate agreements between dealers and manufacturers. Similar legislation is pending in Michigan,
but it pertains only to marine dealers.
The Minnesota bills “attempt to level the playing field
between dealers and manufacturers,” said Amanda
Nagel, membership services sales coordinator with the
Minnesota Retailers Association. MRA is a statewide
trade organization, which represents retailers of all
types and sizes.
Nagel says a number of marine, ATV and snowmobile dealers asked the MRA to lobby for the bill be-
continued on Page 33
‰ OUR VIEW: The importance of the first water access conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.6
‰ LETTERS: Thoughts on nexus, repossessions and technical certification ..............p.6
‰ POLITICS: Stage set for Boating Congress .................................................p.37
‰ MARKETING: Better warranties: one tool for customer retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p.66
THE BOTTOM PAINT CHALLENGE — p. 29
