On Mon, 5 Nov 2007 16:42:14 -0500, " JimH" ask
penned the
following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:
|
|"Gene Kearns" wrote in message
.. .
| On Mon, 5 Nov 2007 14:02:00 -0500, " JimH" ask penned the
| following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:
|
|
|"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
om...
| HK wrote:
| Capt John wrote:
| On Nov 3, 6:29 pm, HK wrote:
| Just read that Albemarle was bought out by Brunswick. Another famous
| line goes in the crapper. Cabo was sold last year. Sad to see the
| independents disappearing, since they build the best boats.
|
| I can't say I blame them, with the price of fuel, the future is very
| cloudy. Powerboating was very much a middle class activity. Sure, the
| really big boats are owned by the wealthy, but the vast majority of
| boat owners are middle class. Crazy fuel prices are starting to push
| the middle class out of boating.
|
| If I owned a business that was very much dependant on middle class
| incomes. And the business started to change, pushing the operating
| cost of my product beyond that which my customer base can afford,
| driving increasing numbers of those customers away. And someone came
| along and offered me a good price for that business, I'd probably take
| the money and run.
|
| John
|
|
| Oh, I don't *blame* Albemarle for selling out, but the likelihood is
| that
| the product that emerges in the years to come will no longer be an
| "Albemarle." It'll be the product of the MBAs and accountants, and
| therefore the probability is, it will be crap, because that is what
| MBAs
| and accountants produce.
|
| Some decades ago, an ad and pr company I worked for had a client that,
| at
| that time, was the largest and most successful FHA-VA mortgage banker
| in
| the country. We liked the company and its management a lot, so much so
| that the owner of the company and I (I was the chief account exec and
| writer) bought some stock. It was traded O-T-C at the time, for about
| $4.00 a share.
|
| Lo and behold, a giant NY-based financial institution offer the
| founders
| $35 a share for the stock. Too good an offer to turn down. We all
| cashed
| in to the limits of our holdings, of course. I made a few bucks and was
| happy to do so.
|
| Well, the new owners simply didn't understand the market for the
| acquisition and in a few years, it sold the company off to someone
| else,
| after most of its value (which was mainly in good will and very
| competent
| staff in about 20 U.S. markets). The company disappeared, along with
| the
| service it had provided. The big institution's MBAs turned the mortgage
| company into crap.
|
| The family that started the mortgage company, the guys who cashed out,
| stayed active in business. A large regional bank in our market was
| about
| to be shut down by the FDIC, and the guys, over the course of ONE
| weekend, put together enough cash to take over the bank with the FDIC's
| blessing. Bank opened Monday with a new name and new management.
| No MBAs involved.
|
| Hatteras no longer is a premier manufacturer of top-end sportfishing
| boats. Cabo no longer has its edge. Albemarle is going to become just
| another nameplate.
|
| Sad to see, whatever the reasons.
|
|
|
| Who is the premier mfg'er of top-end sportfishing boats who has retained
| it's edge.
|
|
|Tiara
|
|http://www.tiarayachts.com/Brix?pageID=168
|
|
| It is sorta hard to take a "sportfisher" made in Michigan
| seriously.... and from the number I see around here, I must not be the
| only person to have that opinion.
|
|Why? Is there no sport fishing on any other body of water other than the
|Atlantic Ocean?
I've heard rumors of some small amount engaged in on the Pacific, but
have always been leery of same. Sort of like tostitos in Kansas.....
--
Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.
Homepage
http://pamandgene.idleplay.net/
Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguide
http://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats
-----------------
www.Newsgroup-Binaries.com - *Completion*Retention*Speed*
Access your favorite newsgroups from home or on the road
-----------------