Fairline Sold

petem said:
Please feel free to shoot me down but this is the situation as I understand it:

1) As of the end of last year, Fairline were making an operational profit. I assume this remains the case.
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I don't know - but we'd better find out before the FBO

petem said:
2) Despite the doom-mongers (mainly competitors), Fairline's dealers sold boats (without silly discounting) at SIBS.
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I don't know about this year, the reports in the press implied sales were modest. I suspect price has been the underlying factor with the majority of sales. I doubt anything has sold for list price in a long time.

petem said:
3) Fairline have successfully moved to a build on demand model and have virtually no unsold stock.
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Their dealers aren't in a position to finance stock boats and neither I assume are the factory, so the only boats that get built are paid for in advance by customers. Talk of selling to an unknown (to me) entity wouldn't fill me with confidence were I about to hand over a deposit and enter into a build programme. My fears might be unfounded but they don't sound good noises. If one of the large builders or a well known brand bought them that would be very different.

petem said:
4) The Targa 53 was warmly received by the boating press.
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The UK boating press are very gentle and upbeat with UK builders (and their advertisers), but if you read between the lines of the review in this months MBY I don't think much was missed. They looked for the positives but acknowledged faults were there. It is not a class winning boat.

petem said:
5) Wessex Bristol currently own Fletcher boats and exhibited them at SIBS.
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Small speed boats are very much like cars. You style them to look good on the outside. The insides are what the are. The Americans use a combination of volume production and plastic to do some cool stuff but essentially you're just choosing a seat fabric. As I suggested earlier I wonder if large boats are more focused on the inside than the outside. I don't see Fletcher helping Fairline in this respect.

petem said:
6) At the time of writing Fairline are still operating.
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It certainly seems so and hopefully that will continue.

petem said:
7) Development for the new Squadron 53 is underway with a launch data of early 2016.
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We shall have to see. I was excited to see what the 53 Targa was like given it and the Squadron 53 were aimed specifically at me (Princess 50 owner). Nothing I saw made me think the Sq 53 will be of any interest. The Fairline problems inside haven't been adressed at all. The only thing they've done is increase the size of the windows.

My humble opinion of course.


Henry
 
petem said:
Please feel free to shoot me down but this is the situation as I understand it:

1) As of the end of last year, Fairline were making an operational profit. I assume this remains the case.
2) Despite the doom-mongers (mainly competitors), Fairline's dealers sold boats (without silly discounting) at SIBS.
3) Fairline have successfully moved to a build on demand model and have virtually no unsold stock.
4) The Targa 53 was warmly received by the boating press.
5) Wessex Bristol currently own Fletcher boats and exhibited them at SIBS.
6) At the time of writing Fairline are still operating.
7) Development for the new Squadron 53 is underway with a launch data of early 2016.
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Don't confuse the ill informed speculation with actual facts - spoilsport!
 
petem said:
3) Fairline have successfully moved to a build on demand model and have virtually no unsold stock.
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Pete, I have a very mixed feeling with this kind of statement; (similarity within my own business segment)

due to shrinking sales figures, (for whatever reasons, I can give a few)
dealers don't want to finance stock anymore,
so even more shrinking of sales figures, less focussed sales efforts,
so the factory could not keep the production line running for the small number of sales,
marketing answer is, "we build to order, "
we all know that this will be a more expensive way of building
so for the same model, that was targeted at a mainstream public, this will even more shrink sales.....

all imvho

appart from that,
I whish them good luck, and hope that the nice brand will survive, I'm convinced it will in one way or the other,
again some nice examples with "strong brand names" in my business
and also a few examples where bean counters ****ed it up ! :( ;)
 
To put the record straight I don't think that zero stock is a healthy position. There's obviously a sweet spot whereby some stock is beneficial for:

a) those buyers that want a boat immediately
b) don't want to expose themselves to the funding risk
c) displaying at boat shows

What's not healthy is having so much stock that heavy discounting is required to prevent boats from having birthdays on the hard or worse still in the water.
 
petem said:
Please feel free to shoot me down but this is the situation as I understand it:

1) As of the end of last year, Fairline were making an operational profit. I assume this remains the case.

Where is the information saying they made an operating profit? I can only find losses reported in their accounts and management reports.
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You can build near zero stock and do it right to be honest.

Rizzardi-Posillipo in Rome, build most 90% of his boats that way from 38 to 120 feet.
At some point in 2008 he sold 90 boats. What was his undoing was the over-pricing of stock used boats which hunted him down when the market went down.
He restarted operations this year by launching a 90 Technema.
At some point you also have to produce something, in order to show to your clients.
Anyways many of the less mainstream Italian medium sized builders did it that way.

I saw yesterday the video of the new 53 Targa GT on YBW, and I cannot understand how Fairline got that midships cabin so wrong, then there is also the step of the cockpit.
I used to think the one of the old 37 Targa was bad, but on a 16 meter. Come on I do not know what Fairline designers are doing or was it the bean counters doing the design this time around.
Not even a Gobbi 425 SC (a design from year 2000) which at some point was smallest boat with a full beam owners cabin did that and may be had even more headroom.
Interesting Gobbi still marketed the midships cabin as guest cabin at the time.

I know there is a lot of Fairline fans here, but you gotta call a donkey with its name, that is all I can say. Ultimately it ends up that the 50 Targa GT is still a better boat for its layout inside.
 
BartW said:
Pete, I have a very mixed feeling with this kind of statement; (similarity within my own business segment)

due to shrinking sales figures, (for whatever reasons, I can give a few)
dealers don't want to finance stock anymore,
so even more shrinking of sales figures, less focussed sales efforts,
so the factory could not keep the production line running for the small number of sales,
marketing answer is, "we build to order, "
we all know that this will be a more expensive way of building
so for the same model, that was targeted at a mainstream public, this will even more shrink sales.....

all imvho
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Agree with you entirely, Bart. A company that declares it is only building to order is a company that wants to get smaller. As you say building to order rather than to stock can only mean higher build costs. Of course it also means that Fairline miss out on those customers who are not prepared to wait for a boat and there are plenty who would rather buy a stock boat than wait 9 months for a build to order, not to mention avoiding the financial risk of doing that. And as you say, the dealers, as jrudge very aptly put it, have no skin in the game. There is nothing that concentrates the dealers' mind harder on selling that seeing a row of shiny new product lined up outside his office every day that he's paid for (I know this very well!)

Like you, I wish Fairline and in particular their dedicated staff and suppliers all the best and hope that they can eventually find an owner who can give the company the direction it needs and the funds to get there
 
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