November 1, 2011

blogger - The Storm

The Storm is not the next movie flick involving some motor boater in gale force winds and high seas, but is in my experience what the boat building industry has been experiencing since 2009 with very little good days in between.  That is a three years period of very difficult market situation. 
After the global melt down and sub prime crisis in 2009, we have seen bits of 2010, and more in 2011 of the sovereign debt crisis involving mostly Europe and other developed countries.  The situation is not good considering that most of the countries involved represent core growth or good market value for most European and US boat builders.  Those builders who have a global market share with a World wide distribution feel a bit better in this situation but even these have tremendous sales decreases, which growing markets as Brazil, India, and China cannot actually cover.  
So what does the future hold for the coming year? Can the market which now features double the competition to what it had ten years ago, return back to sustained levels, and more stable conditions.  Only a couple of more months can reply to this question.  But with the war in Libya finished the economy and market should settle down things to a more normal status in the upcoming months.   


  1. Hi William, very interesting post (as usual!).

    Just a question though: Do you consider the Motor Boat market as a Mass Market or a Luxury Market?

  2. Hello Fred.
    Thank you for the comment. Here is my reply.
    In Europe for the most part it is definitly a luxury market, with the exception of the Scandinavian countries. Where keeping a boat under ten meters is cheap compared to other European counties. I think it is about half the price to most of other Euro places.
    Same can be said about the North American continent.
    Would ever Europe arrive to this level, so far what has happened in the last two decades, surely made Europe and the Med become more boating expensive. Think about a price increase of boat keeping of 100% every decade!
    I definitly hope we improve especially in the size under ten meters.
    The problem is surely about the price of keeping a boat more then buying it, and this is scaring many casual entry level buyers away from boating. Since more mass produced builders as Beneteau have enteted the market price wise of buying it there is a boat for everyone. But this is not enough!

  3. Hello Fred.
    I replied to this a day after your post but somehow it vanished.
    So let me write my reply again.
    For the Motor Boat market to be a mass market we have to establish a size. It is possible from five to 10 meters to be so. But upkeeping costings in most of Europe for the exception of Scandinavian countries make this goal hard to reach. Keeping an 8-10 meters is about average 10k a year in most Western EU counties. Thats not cheap.
    Countries which manage this goal are surely Scandinavia, and the North American continents, and the results are shown as infact in these sizes msas production is a must not a rare occurance. Others like some known French and Italian builders have actually tapped in these markets for growth. If it goes less in the med then may be we are in for a more mass market, but I see that a long way off to happen.