Broom or Bust?

This smacks of what happened to Gales Brewers a few years ago, right down to the sudden closure of the main site and the hand wringing of family shareholders who sold out with the expectation of a tidy sum AND the company continuing as before.

Seafairseeker must be torn between grinning and fretting.
 
Andrew38 said:
....................... There are certainly staff on site today and they seem to believe that there is a future and that the future will include building new boats though seriously revamped from the current range.

We need to let the dust settle but as a Broom owner I know that I still own a quality product and I'm not concerned about future second hand values - I just look at the prices 20 year old Broom still make!
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I sincerely hope that Broom do continue building boats, any old established decent company closing is a great sadness, especially a UK company that actually still MAKES something!!! There must be some very skilled folk out there concerned about their futures & hoping that the future of Broom is in production as well as Marina & brokerage....
 
Whitelighter said:
However, my main issue was the OP stated by saying by starting with a statement, one that had merely been herad and only then asking a question.
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The OP started with a fact as he had (in fact) heard a rumor - no question about that. This factual statement was then followed by a question.

There is nothing at all wrong with that and IMHO a very useful post.
 
FlowerPower said:
You are one of five people standing in a field.
There is a loud bang, and one person falls to the ground.
Would you be grinning?
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No one has fallen down.
This is the UK and there are many companies out there ready to go pop.
Encouraged by 'loans' given away by HMC&R

Here is one example of how it can work, fictitious company and names and situation names changed....

Mr Smith of Anycompany LTD starts a new LTD company AnyAcompany LTD

Anycompany LTD is allowed a VAT and PAYE holiday for 18 months.
Anycompany LTD owes £250 000 to HMR&C and gets in touch with an administrator and does a deal with HMR&C

Anycompany LTD is going to be liquidated, almost everyone except HMR&C are going to be paid by AnyAcompany LTD and ALL 50 employees are going to be saved.

Mr Smith carries on in the same premises , same machinery, same stock , same employees and everyone is happy, especially the punters who have had orders 'on hold' for the last 3 months as Mr Smith got himself ready for this.

He settles his debts with all the suppliers he needs , even his Insurance company gets paid outstanding premiums .
A few suppliers are left whistling that he didnt get on with and he doesnt need anymore.
Even HMR&C are sort of happy because they want next years continued PAYE and VAT .

I would like to make it clear the above example has no connection with Brooms , the only reason I posted it was to demonstrate that going bust in the UK is not at all like being shot , far from it, some even manage to make the experience more like winning the lottery !
 
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What a sad story,what a valuable site ! There used to be shipbuilding on the Yorkshire Ouse,the company owned the pilotage rights on the R.Humber.A certain large company bought the shipbuilding company solely for the pilotage rights and then shut the shipbuilding side down.Hope something like this doesnt happen to the Broom site.
 
volvopaul said:
Cant believe it, I thought the new owners would honour the staff there jobs for the future, is it true that they took them on only to sack them a few weeks after? if so just typical of companies these days, everyones just a number now, glad ive been on my own since 1990.

I know things have been slow for them, they had there good days building 450s, seems now thats all gone in this current climate, will they be at the show?
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Sad to hear this as a Broom owner myself, hope they do restart, but not hopeful, and regardless there is obviously the reputation damage.

There is a short statement on our owner's club site (which is supported by Broom Boats).

http://broomowners.com/
 
Sad to see them go, but not surpised. Their method of manufacturing was from another era, hence high costs that made them unattractive. Undoubtable they built a quality product, but at such an inefficient cost. If they do ever restart I would not be surprised to see manufacturing outsourced to eastern europe with modern production lines. Building boats in the UKs expensive labour market makes no sense anymore.
 
oceanfroggie said:
Sad to see them go, but not surpised. Their method of manufacturing was from another era, hence high costs that made them unattractive. Undoubtable they built a quality product, but at such an inefficient cost. If they do ever restart I would not be surprised to see manufacturing outsourced to eastern europe with modern production lines. Building boats in the UKs expensive labour market makes no sense anymore.
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Why not? Seefairprincsline manage to do it at a fairly competitive price. I still think Broom has a life, and a unique product. They surely need more marketing and put some clever modern touches to there boats and I am sure they can put a few needles to the above competition.
 
Broom have been 'guilty' of not moving with the times, I think in a lot of cases a boat is now regarded as a 'total entertainment package' rather than just a boat. There seems to be a move towards having lots of 'bling' on your new pride and joy, pretty underwater lights, 'mood lighting' (whatever that may be), LED lit handrails, flat screen tv's et.al. Personally these are not the kind of things I would desire in a boat, (quality, longevity) , but to stay in business it is necessary to provide what the market wants, and I suspect this is the 'crime' Broom have been guilty of
 
I would say that part of the problem is the age profile of Broom owners.

If, like Jaguar did in the past, you keep an ageing customer base very happy with a product that doesn't change too much, then it all goes swimmingly right up to the point where they start retiring from driving/boating, and there's no younger customer to backfill.

I was told once at a boat show by a very nice Broom salesman, that if I bought one, I would be "The youngest person to ever buy a Broom"...
 
Imperial One said:
If this news is true, it is a great shame. I have always had a lot of respect for Martin Broom and his products.

When we had the Atlantic agency we often traded in Broom boats against new Atlantic's and we always had a very good relationship with both Martin Broom and his staff.

They always looked at our boats and we at theirs at boat shows. When we launched our Atlantic 50 in 2000about 6 months ahead of Broom's 50, , I remember showing Martin Broom over the boat myself and he was very complimentary, a real old school gentleman of the industry.
We had very competitive products often competing for the same client but we could always call and talk to each other about any of our boats and their values etcetera.

It is no secret that the market is not easy for any new boat builder at this time and I for one will be sorry to learn it is true if they have gone for good.

In my opinion Broom are one of the good guys who deserved to stay and get through these tough economic times.
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I'm completely shocked. As a previous Broom owner, I counted myself as a fan of the marque and I was pleased to hear that the company had been taken over and that the new owners had new products in mind but it seems that this was just a sham. I guess the value of the real estate on which the manufacturing facility sits is worth more as development land.

I dont believe the new owners when they say that they will look at restarting manufacturing in the future. If they had in mind restarting manufacturing before Xmas, they wouldn't have risked losing a loyal and experienced workforce by sacking them. Anyway, who is going to place an order for a new Broom boat without any certainty that the boat will be built and if it is, by whom?

I'd like to think that Martin Broom knew nothing about this and that the sale of the company was not just a way of him avoiding closing the manufacturing arm himself. I still think that the Broom marque is highly respected and should be picked up by somebody who can make a go of manufacturing boats under the Broom name

Still, not really bad news for other sellers of aft cabin boats, Imperial One?
 
oceanfroggie said:
Sad to see them go, but not surpised. Their method of manufacturing was from another era, hence high costs that made them unattractive. Undoubtable they built a quality product, but at such an inefficient cost. If they do ever restart I would not be surprised to see manufacturing outsourced to eastern europe with modern production lines. Building boats in the UKs expensive labour market makes no sense anymore.
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You're probably right on that. If Broom ever start up again, which I doubt, it will likely be with hulls sourced from somewhere like Turkey but Pearl tried this and I know they found quality control an issue. Then there is the effect that this will have on sales. Once buyers find out that part or all of their new Broom boat has been built outside the UK, then many will think it's not a Broom any more. After all, one of the major reasons people buy new Brooms is because they know they are buying from a traditional British yard with decades of experience building quality boats. If Brooms are to become badge engineered imports, that will be the death of the brand
Should be good for values of secondhand Brooms though:)
 
Quite right mike.

I heard that Birchwood have started up, well the name has but being built in spain?

I spoke to a dealer yesterday, im sure there is more behind this closure than we can tell at the moment, I doubt they will be back building, as you said why sack the force to bring them back later on.

If I was in there position redundant id set up nearby and take on the many winter projects that loyal broom owners have done , and offer servicing and repairs outside the yard at another location. from figures heard the loss was 1 million£.
 
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