Bigplumbs
Well-Known Member
Quite who would buy from them now would be total madness
Fairline Gone Pop
- Thread starter Bigplumbs
- Start date
PowerYachtBlog
Well-Known Member
Sunseeker is in a much better position then Fairline all around, and its buyers have been in boat building all around.
Its CEO (of the last five years) is also a naval architect, and has one of the best CVs in the boating industries. While the new chairman Galeone has a respectable CV in boat building.
Also Sunseeker is the only one of three British sisters that makes a profit, so why should it be interested in Fairline and or Princess for that matter....
Seastoke
Well-Known Member
Well if they say are both showing at Düsseldorf door and are both coming out of Poole, you should get a sale of peeps looking at say a 55/58. It seems to work for Ferretti group . The days of building boats away from the coast is not viable now they are getting bigger. What is the brand name worth.
PowerYachtBlog
Well-Known Member
This excuse that is away from the coast have been with Fairline since like ever (late nineties).
Let put your mind at rest.
Azimut sub 78 feet are build inside Torino, and they turn a healthy profit. (two hour drive to Savona by car).
Absolute builds even more in central Italy and up to 75 feet and turns a profit.
And so are the Riva 76 and smaller.
In the end boats are sold at the yard. Wherever that may be. And Fairline boats are not getting bigger and as they have been 68 foot max since they returned in 2016/17.
ari
Well-Known Member
Already been tried in Southampton. Didn't work.
New commercial shipyard facility opened by Fairline at Hythe
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
Deleted User gave a summary in the other place of what the previous buy out was and intended and why it has failed. Basically they were a cheap company specialising in buying up companies pre packaging them for onward sale having stripped them of any available cash, one of the companies lenders twigged what was going on and put the company into administration.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
Call it what it is : Asset Stripping.
Funny that - there's a very famous guy in the news at present who is 'infamous' for such ... wonder who that is ????
SC35
Well-Known Member
Something very similar happened to Sealine.
If you are taken over by "Oxford Investment Group", prepare for your demise.
oldgit
Well-Known Member
A marque that catered for a market that has gone. ?
In the past, a middle aged chap in his mid 30s with a small business could afford to buy a Turbo 36 or Sedan 36, the young professional chap who wanted to show he had arrived, could afford a 33/37ft Targa of some description. The more adventurous skippers might leave UK waters for a week or two across La Manche.
At the lower end, the small Fairlines ,Sun Fury 26 , would start somebody off and then sell like hot cakes second hand and fund the next boat up.
There were only 3 boat builders in the world , all BRITISH and apparently nobody had the slightest suspicion that those pesky foreigners were capable of actually moulding glassfibre.
Abandoning volume and going upmarket appeared the only solution, unfortunately these boats were starting to become out of the reach of what would have previously been their customers.
Then, those who could afford to buy any new Fairline discovered the "MED".
Sun, wine you could actually drink and no boiled cabbage with every meal,
Why not keep your new boat down there.
Fairlines problem, all these other builders down there offering more for less ?
In the past, a middle aged chap in his mid 30s with a small business could afford to buy a Turbo 36 or Sedan 36, the young professional chap who wanted to show he had arrived, could afford a 33/37ft Targa of some description. The more adventurous skippers might leave UK waters for a week or two across La Manche.
At the lower end, the small Fairlines ,Sun Fury 26 , would start somebody off and then sell like hot cakes second hand and fund the next boat up.
There were only 3 boat builders in the world , all BRITISH and apparently nobody had the slightest suspicion that those pesky foreigners were capable of actually moulding glassfibre.
Abandoning volume and going upmarket appeared the only solution, unfortunately these boats were starting to become out of the reach of what would have previously been their customers.
Then, those who could afford to buy any new Fairline discovered the "MED".
Sun, wine you could actually drink and no boiled cabbage with every meal,
Why not keep your new boat down there.
Fairlines problem, all these other builders down there offering more for less ?
SC35
Well-Known Member
A salesman at the last boat show said "It's difficult to get someone to move on from a Sealine SC35".
Errr, yes, because the boat that I might have paid £150k for ... the equivalent thing new is now well North of half a million quid which I do not have.
I will admit that "I can't afford a new 40ft motorboat" is a First World Problem and highly unlikely to succeed in crowdfunding.
But it used to be possible in smaller increments than it is today.
What they are left with is a much smaller target market that will be very demanding in terms of what they want for their much larger spend.
.
Last edited:
Fire99
Well-Known Member
Yes and no. To take it at it's most extreme, is buying into the US model that everything is no greater than the maximum amount of profit. So Fairline could be HoonWaa for all it matter so long as it makes profit.
Yes, companies rise and companies fall but there is more to it. Ferrari and Italy for example..
I take a middle ground. A company needs good business sense to survive and often they fail because of their own failings but I am also passionate about boats and passionate about long-standing British brands. I want Fairline to survive because I like their products and they also are a famous British marque. Why wouldn't I want them to recover?
Bouba
Well-Known Member
There must be hulls under construction that people have paid deposits on and possibly staged payments…. I wonder if they would rather have their money back or the build completed
PowerYachtBlog
Well-Known Member
For me the Fairline business and with current boat pricing, any buyer needs to be hard footed on the expectations and stay on them.
Fairline can survive but it has to create a model with premises and staff with target business of give or take thirty boats a year.
Go above that number and or push it to go beyond that and it starts having trouble.
I am sure the current Fairline sellers will tell to any buyer that it can produce 100 or even 200 boats a year if marketed right, but that is not gonna happen with the current pricing of boats.
The only way Fairline can survive is to refine its business model to smaller scale, or else even if a new buyer pops up in this minute we are gonna have the same conversation in a year if we are lucky two.
Last edited:
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
It's very rarely an option as Fairline is unlikely to be in a position to complete them and would you give them more money in the hope they complete your part finished boat. Then there is the problem assuming they can find another company that will be able to complete your half finished boat and that is getting it off the administrator / receiver who usually considers it the property of the company.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
The administrator is responsible for doing the best for the business. They have kept the 250 workers on, presumably to continue building the boats in progress. This is in their interests as completed boats bring in cash. It is up to them to decide whether it is viable to continue given the resources available. It makes a sale easier perhaps if there is still activity.
Seastoke
Well-Known Member
First question is, what do administrators know about building boats.
Scubadoo
Well-Known Member
I can't believe any person with hundreds of thousands to spend would consider the risk of buying a Fairline. Although Fairline are very nice boats, I would just look at alternatives. I would also worry about the Fairline staff completing boats and maintaining quality, hardly motivating with redundancies hanging over you. But I do hope they can turn it around and the staff have a more secure future.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Same as the various investors who have owned Fairline, not a lot (nothing). The 250 workers still employed will presumably know something.
stelican
Well-Known Member
j
It appears to be how to do it profitably.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Been a while since Farline have known how to do that.
