Sealine back on course
Sealine back on course
By IBI Magazine / Robert Greenwood
With the 2010 Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show currently underway one of the few notable British marine companies absent from the list of 500 exhibitors was the smallest of the UK's 'big four' powercruiser builders, Sealine International. This is the second successive year that the company had opted out of the show. But at a London meeting just before the Christmas break Sealine set out to show to a small group of boating journalists that it is now fitter and leaner than it had been at the start of the slump in the global boating market by late 2008, and that its survival strategy has so far worked and is now giving returns.
Of the four major UK powerboat builders (the others being Sunseeker, Princess and Fairline) Brunswick group-owned Sealine was the swiftest to react to the sharp reversal of almost two decades of boating market growth. Its action was decisive. Back in October 2008, as the global credit crunch was starting to bite, it announced that it was going to reduce its workforce by almost a half, to around 300, and to close two of its three factories to concentrate production on its main plant at Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Output would be cut to take pressure off dealer inventories in the face of falling demand levels.
Just a week or so later Sealine stated that it had decided to limit its participation at international boat shows to one key exposition per major market. In the UK that meant September's Southampton boat show.
It wasn't all negative news, however. The company has focused its attention on product and brand development. For greater production efficiency, its in-house design team has produced new models which, as in the car industry, are based on model 'platforms'. The well-known Terrance Conran British design group was commissioned to style the interior of a new flagship model, the T60 Aura motoryacht, which was previewed in January last year.
Sealine's next new model, announced at the London meeting and due to be launched at the 2010 Southampton boat show, will be the flybridge F42 and will be the third boat to be based on the company's 'D' hull platform model.
At Sealine's London presentation, sales and marketing director Nicholas Turner added detail to the company's survival strategy and gave a progress update on its road to recovery. Charting events, he said that "by March 2008 an EU survey of business sentiment showed that that the major European economies had passed the top of the economic cycle. By the year's end there was a strong downward trend."
The economic indicators of gross domestic product and unemployment figures, Nicholas Turner pointed out, usually lag business sentiment by three and six-to-seven months respectivley, which was why Sealine acted when it did. "We were looking to enable Sealine's business to be profitable at a lower position and to support the dealer network, so we decided that we needed to make an early adjustment. We reduced our production to 20 per cent below what we expected demand to be, so that dealer stocks have been reduced by 45 per cent worldwide. There are now fewer than 80 boats in stock."
Foreign dealers who bought stock before Sterling fell against the Euro received further help. "We stepped in to help dealers to balance the downside of the weak Pound versus the Euro," Nicholas Turner said. As a result of Sealine's action programme, "we've had only one dealer financial failure. That was in Finland," he added.
The dealer network has recently been extended with the appointment of new dealers its established markets in Germany and Portugal, and also in Egypt, a new market for the Sealine.
Vindication of Sealine's swift action is provided by its latest financial figures. "While powerboat sales generally across most European markets are down by 30 to 45 per cent, our sales figures are down by 18 per cent. We are taking market share," said Turner.
Meanwhile Sealine continues to increase its promotional activity through owner regattas. There will be 20 this year run through the dealer network as well as a Sealine Experience Flagship Powerboat Event to be staged by the company this summer at Cowes, a week after the Isle of Wight port's annual sailing regatta.
Because it had acted early and decisively, Nicholas Turner said that Sealine did not need to make any further adjustments to its operation.
(12 January 2010)
By IBI Magazine / Robert Greenwood
With the 2010 Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show currently underway one of the few notable British marine companies absent from the list of 500 exhibitors was the smallest of the UK's 'big four' powercruiser builders, Sealine International. This is the second successive year that the company had opted out of the show. But at a London meeting just before the Christmas break Sealine set out to show to a small group of boating journalists that it is now fitter and leaner than it had been at the start of the slump in the global boating market by late 2008, and that its survival strategy has so far worked and is now giving returns.
Of the four major UK powerboat builders (the others being Sunseeker, Princess and Fairline) Brunswick group-owned Sealine was the swiftest to react to the sharp reversal of almost two decades of boating market growth. Its action was decisive. Back in October 2008, as the global credit crunch was starting to bite, it announced that it was going to reduce its workforce by almost a half, to around 300, and to close two of its three factories to concentrate production on its main plant at Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Output would be cut to take pressure off dealer inventories in the face of falling demand levels.
Just a week or so later Sealine stated that it had decided to limit its participation at international boat shows to one key exposition per major market. In the UK that meant September's Southampton boat show.
It wasn't all negative news, however. The company has focused its attention on product and brand development. For greater production efficiency, its in-house design team has produced new models which, as in the car industry, are based on model 'platforms'. The well-known Terrance Conran British design group was commissioned to style the interior of a new flagship model, the T60 Aura motoryacht, which was previewed in January last year.
Sealine's next new model, announced at the London meeting and due to be launched at the 2010 Southampton boat show, will be the flybridge F42 and will be the third boat to be based on the company's 'D' hull platform model.
At Sealine's London presentation, sales and marketing director Nicholas Turner added detail to the company's survival strategy and gave a progress update on its road to recovery. Charting events, he said that "by March 2008 an EU survey of business sentiment showed that that the major European economies had passed the top of the economic cycle. By the year's end there was a strong downward trend."
The economic indicators of gross domestic product and unemployment figures, Nicholas Turner pointed out, usually lag business sentiment by three and six-to-seven months respectivley, which was why Sealine acted when it did. "We were looking to enable Sealine's business to be profitable at a lower position and to support the dealer network, so we decided that we needed to make an early adjustment. We reduced our production to 20 per cent below what we expected demand to be, so that dealer stocks have been reduced by 45 per cent worldwide. There are now fewer than 80 boats in stock."
Foreign dealers who bought stock before Sterling fell against the Euro received further help. "We stepped in to help dealers to balance the downside of the weak Pound versus the Euro," Nicholas Turner said. As a result of Sealine's action programme, "we've had only one dealer financial failure. That was in Finland," he added.
The dealer network has recently been extended with the appointment of new dealers its established markets in Germany and Portugal, and also in Egypt, a new market for the Sealine.
Vindication of Sealine's swift action is provided by its latest financial figures. "While powerboat sales generally across most European markets are down by 30 to 45 per cent, our sales figures are down by 18 per cent. We are taking market share," said Turner.
Meanwhile Sealine continues to increase its promotional activity through owner regattas. There will be 20 this year run through the dealer network as well as a Sealine Experience Flagship Powerboat Event to be staged by the company this summer at Cowes, a week after the Isle of Wight port's annual sailing regatta.
Because it had acted early and decisively, Nicholas Turner said that Sealine did not need to make any further adjustments to its operation.
(12 January 2010)
posted by EMS @ 7:39 PM
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