Fairline - any news?

Re: Fairline - Owners Club

longjohnsilver said:
I'm in the Deleted User camp when it comes to diets, see food and eat it:):) so no idea what you're talking about.;)
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. The difference is that it seems to accumulating around your waistline a lot faster than mine;);)
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

TwoHooter said:
You are not a grave robber and there is a precedent for an owners club buying assets from a failed boatbuilder:-
'Consonant Yachts of Vriezenveen in the Netherlands has built more than seventy Kuster motor yachts in the past decade but last year the company found itself in difficulties and the yard was taken over by the Kuster owners club. Recently Kuster owners club, led by Herman van der Most, started looking for a new party to continue the construction and maintenance of the Kuster and Noaber vessels.'
See http://www.kusteryachts.nl/fr/info/61/156/north-line-yachts-has-taken-over-consonant-yachts.html but I don't know how well it is working out - that quote is well out of date now, and the relevant websites have not been updated for some time.
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Thanks. I spoke to FRP, the Administrators earlier in the week. They are still looking for someone to take the business on as a going concern, which is good. I'll speak to them in the new year to establish what can be done if they fail to get a proper buyer.
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

petem said:
Thanks. I spoke to FRP, the Administrators earlier in the week. They are still looking for someone to take the business on as a going concern, which is good. I'll speak to them in the new year to establish what can be done if they fail to get a proper buyer.
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Someone (who?) might take over the factory and produce new Fairline boats but from where I sit it looks unlikely. If the Administration turns into a Liquidation (“A>L”) you won't have time to do any establishing. You'll be amazed by the speed with which everything happens on the day the Liquidator is appointed, whoever it is. You need to be preparing now because the big need is for owners of existing boats to preserve the value of their investment. FWIW, if I was you, this is what I'd do right now, starting today:
  1. Form a proper Members Club with the objective of preserving the value of members' boats . Don't spend ages discussing the rules, just make sure it's one member one vote and there is a clear process for changing the rules later when there is time to think. If I owned a Fairline boat which has a current market value of hundreds of thousands of pounds I'd join. A good owners club is the best way to preserve the value of boats made by a failed boat builder - the Westerly Owners Association (“WOA”) is good evidence of that.
  2. Everyone chips in £100 now and agrees that if A>L they will buy shares in a private company, Fairline Owners Ltd., which will take the place of the club. Perhaps £500 shares per person, and an annual subscription of £100. You also need to identify members who are willing and able to buy debentures on an ordinary businesslike basis. Draft all the paperwork for this now. It's not difficult.
  3. Identify someone at Fairline who has comprehensive knowledge of their production processes who would be willing to be employed to run the new company, probably part time. Of course this will only work if there are enough subscriptions to fund a salary and an office. You probably need several hundred members – that might kill the idea, but who knows? IIRC the WOA has 1,500 paying members.
  4. If it were me, and A>L, top of my list of assets to acquire using the equity and debenture finance would be all the paper and CAD drawings (plus CAD passwords), the company's servers (and passwords), the contents of the filing cabinets, and an assignment of any and all the IP held by the company. To reduce risk you would need to document that you are buying assets, not liabilities. If Fairline Owners Ltd. gets these materials and has an experienced ex. Fairline person on board it would be of great benefit to owners and a huge selling point when current owners want to sell their boats, because it would almost be as good as factory support. The thing you don't want is for all the stuff I've listed going into skips, which is what will happen if A>L and nobody is ready and waiting to buy them at exactly the right moment. If there is no buyer for the business as a going concern those assets are not worth much – you should get them for peanuts. But beware, if A>L everything will happen VERY quickly – you may get just 24 hours to buy the stuff and take it away – I've seen that happen in a liquidation. It's sometimes chaotic in the final stages, particularly on the day the liquidator stops paying for security guards.
Good Luck, whatever you decide to do.
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

TwoHooter said:
Someone (who?) might take over the factory and produce new Fairline boats but from where I sit it looks unlikely. If the Administration turns into a Liquidation (“A>L”) you won't have time to do any establishing. You'll be amazed by the speed with which everything happens on the day the Liquidator is appointed, whoever it is. You need to be preparing now because the big need is for owners of existing boats to preserve the value of their investment. FWIW, if I was you, this is what I'd do right now, starting today:
  1. Form a proper Members Club with the objective of preserving the value of members' boats . Don't spend ages discussing the rules, just make sure it's one member one vote and there is a clear process for changing the rules later when there is time to think. If I owned a Fairline boat which has a current market value of hundreds of thousands of pounds I'd join. A good owners club is the best way to preserve the value of boats made by a failed boat builder - the Westerly Owners Association (“WOA”) is good evidence of that.
  2. Everyone chips in £100 now and agrees that if A>L they will buy shares in a private company, Fairline Owners Ltd., which will take the place of the club. Perhaps £500 shares per person, and an annual subscription of £100. You also need to identify members who are willing and able to buy debentures on an ordinary businesslike basis. Draft all the paperwork for this now. It's not difficult.
  3. Identify someone at Fairline who has comprehensive knowledge of their production processes who would be willing to be employed to run the new company, probably part time. Of course this will only work if there are enough subscriptions to fund a salary and an office. You probably need several hundred members – that might kill the idea, but who knows? IIRC the WOA has 1,500 paying members.
  4. If it were me, and A>L, top of my list of assets to acquire using the equity and debenture finance would be all the paper and CAD drawings (plus CAD passwords), the company's servers (and passwords), the contents of the filing cabinets, and an assignment of any and all the IP held by the company. To reduce risk you would need to document that you are buying assets, not liabilities. If Fairline Owners Ltd. gets these materials and has an experienced ex. Fairline person on board it would be of great benefit to owners and a huge selling point when current owners want to sell their boats, because it would almost be as good as factory support. The thing you don't want is for all the stuff I've listed going into skips, which is what will happen if A>L and nobody is ready and waiting to buy them at exactly the right moment. If there is no buyer for the business as a going concern those assets are not worth much – you should get them for peanuts. But beware, if A>L everything will happen VERY quickly – you may get just 24 hours to buy the stuff and take it away – I've seen that happen in a liquidation. It's sometimes chaotic in the final stages, particularly on the day the liquidator stops paying for security guards.
Good Luck, whatever you decide to do.
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This thread has got quiet! My business partner challenged me about what I was going to do with Fairline potentially not around - he was thinking more cars - Rover & Saab. My answer is that all the components are not made by Fairline - engines, genset, electrical, water pumps, propellers, shafts, etc. The bit they made (very well), the hull, work work etc. can be repaired by anyone and I cannot see what I will lose if they are not around - they weren't around in the last four years of ownership so not a lot of difference - Essex Boat Yards fixed anything under warranty and well pass the expiry and I don't see them dropping their advice line as I am sure I will buy another boat from them when the price is right.
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

admillington said:
This thread has got quiet! My business partner challenged me about what I was going to do with Fairline potentially not around
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In many years of owning used boats, I think I've only been in direct contact with the manufacturer of those boats a couple of times. One time however was in order to invoke the hull warranty and I suppose that is potentially one area that existing Fairline owners might have needed to be in direct contact with the factory. However, given the fact that Fairlines are not known for suffering hull issues, its not something to lose any sleep over
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

Has anyone heard anything about a seminar at the London boat show for ex employees to keep them within the industry?
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

It rings bells ... Call the British Marine Federation on 01784 473377 and ask for training. I recall a conversation recently on this subject. I think that's the number but I am one bottle of red in ...
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

Apparently a deal has been done and it's been bought (not before most of the inventory was sold off). No word on who by though.
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

i believe that is substantially correct, though i don't know, but i think the deal isn't unconditional yet so it will take a bit longer. There is more DD to do i guess

Yes lots of loose clobber has been sold. I bought a grand's worth of spare parts from Coastal Rides yesterday and am finalising some from HCS (see other thread)
 
KevB said:
WM doing the dirty work for a third party who will pay WM handsomely when the buy the FL brand from WM and the third party is hailed the saviour as they resurrect FL leaner and meaner?
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Like I said a couple of months ago. A dodgy deal from the start. I'm sure they'll be some who know the full story...
 
Re: Fairline - Owners Club

We understand that it's a credible offer from new investors and has absolutely nothing to do with Wessex Bristol.
 
KevB said:
Like I said a couple of months ago. A dodgy deal from the start. I'm sure they'll be some who know the full story...
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KevB, that's quite a conspiracy theory.

If you mean they intended to buy it directly from WB as a going concern, then there's nothing illegal or immoral about a proxy buyer as far as I know, though I don't quite see the point.

If you mean it was always the plan to put the business into administration, then firstly it was BC not WB that forced that (were they in on it too?), and secondly the new buyer isn't buying it from WB, they're buying it from the administrator who will make the sole decision who to sell to. He is duty bound to sell to the party which makes the best offer, net of his residual costs, so a "dodgy" buyer would have gained nothing from any deal they did with WB.
 
Nick_H said:
KevB, that's quite a conspiracy theory.

firstly it was BC not WB that forced that (were they in on it too?), .
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Yes, BC didn't want bad publicity with redundancies and company X (whoever that is) Just wants the brand name. WB did the job for BC and company X with the redundancies, BC puts it into liquidation by calling in their outstanding consideration and company X buys the brand from the liquidators.
 
I'm also sceptical of the consipiracy theory although I know others support it. Everything I've seen suggests to me that WB wanted to run the business. The £1m + £16m funding from an investor seems to be woefully inadequate to support this (and in the end wasn't forthcoming). The real story here is that BC didn't care (or weren't interested in finding out) that the WB plan had very little chance of success. All they were interested in was offloading the business.
 
petem said:
The real story here is that BC didn't care (or weren't interested in finding out) that the WB plan had very little chance of success. All they were interested in was offloading the business.
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I think that's almost certainly true, but it's a big step from there to the multi party conspiracy that KevB suggests.

I guess none of us know for sure, but I'm a big believer in Occam's Razor, that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

The simplest explanation for me is that BC couldn't turn the business round or sell it, so they gave it to the first people that would take it off their hands. WB had a woolly offer of funding from a third party so took a punt, as they were paying nothing to BC upfront so had little to lose, and when the funder got cold feet they had nowhere else to go but administration.

edit: I know it's nice to pin lots of the blame here on faceless investors, but let's not forget that BC poured tens of millions into the business, and ultimately it was the management that failed to make it profitable. For sure they had some difficult external factors to deal with post 2008, but they also, in my opinion, didn't develop a strong enough product line-up across the board. They had some winners for sure, but the hit rate wasn't high enough.
 
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