Sealine sold to US investors

FlowerPower said:
Edited: Wrong way around. But this is going back to the mixed factory sales and dealership model that didn't work too well in the past. Having a flash showroom to present the boats in sounds good, but expensive, as there will be several millions pounds worth of boats sitting there going nowhere. Isn't that what Boat Shows are for?
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Sounds already like the start of the fattening up process for a future sale of the company. Investors like to see companies in control of as much of their supply and delivery chain as possible. Of course, its usually never works. Manufacturers know about manufacturing and dealers know about selling, not vice versa. So Sealine are going to tie up precious money in building a swanky new showroom and keeping stock, money that would be better invested in developing new models or trying to get into new markets.
 
Deleted User said:
Sounds already like the start of the fattening up process for a future sale of the company. Investors like to see companies in control of as much of their supply and delivery chain as possible. Of course, its usually never works. Manufacturers know about manufacturing and dealers know about selling, not vice versa. So Sealine are going to tie up precious money in building a swanky new showroom and keeping stock, money that would be better invested in developing new models or trying to get into new markets.
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+1!
 
Deleted User said:
Sounds already like the start of the fattening up process for a future sale of the company. Investors like to see companies in control of as much of their supply and delivery chain as possible. Of course, its usually never works.
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Well, I wouldn't say that this NEVER works as such, but I fully agree that whenever someone who knows nothing of a business pretends to improve it applying some sort of pre-defined turnaround strategy, THAT is often a recipe for a disaster.

The joke of the three envelopes describes these situations properly, though someone could argue that it's a rather old one (my apologies to them :)):

A retiring CEO gives three envelopes to his successor. He says, “Whenever the company will be in trouble in the future, open one of the two green envelopes and you will find good advice. When the company will run badly a second time, open the other green envelope, and reserve the red envelope for the third time that will happen.”
Shortly afterwards, when the first crisis strikes, the new CEO opens the first envelope, and reads: “Decentralize!”. So, he starts restructuring and decentralizing, eventually driving the company out of its troubles.
Some years later, he has to face the same situation again, so he opens the second envelope and finds the message: “Centralize!”. Therefore, he starts doing the opposite of what he did the first time, and after a while the company gets healthy again.
After some other years, another crisis strikes, and he has no clue about how to face it. But he reminds that there's still the last envelope in his drawer. So, hoping to find yet some other good advice, he opens it and reads... "Prepare three envelopes!". :D
 
MapisM said:
Well, I wouldn't say that this NEVER works as such, but I fully agree that whenever someone who knows nothing of a business pretends to improve it applying some sort of pre-defined turnaround strategy, THAT is often a recipe for a disaster.
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I've seen it many times in my industry. Manufacturers invariably think that their dealers are a necessary (or unnecessary) evil and some hotshot new manager comes along and thinks it would be a good idea to replace all their dealers in their key markets with directly owned sales operations. So they parachute in company staffers with little or no sales experience to run the operations who don't know the markets or the customers with the inevitable result that they lose market share and lose a load of money. Then the hot shot manager is sacked and another hot shot manager comes in and decides that it would be a good idea to sell through dealers again!
Yup exactly the same as your parable of the envelopes
 
sealine to close retail operations..

Funny how short people's memories can be. Sealine have had 6 CEO's in the past 5 years - that's more than some premiership football clubs!!!! Found the press archive link below which really made me smile having just read the latest Sealine press release about the factory selling direct...... :)

http://www.sealine.com/news/press-office/archive/sealine-to-close-retail-operations-14.html

....come on guys get it together!!!
 
All I can say is the new General Manager, Roger Wakefield, is well known to me and is a totally committed guy, offering the best possible customer service to all his customers.
In fact if he was a stick of rock he would have Sealine printed down the center.
This is no reflection from me about the new structure or Ancasta but just an endorsement of a guy who will I know, do his best for Sealine customers.
 
So the agreement with Ancasta has been terminated, but how does this leave the other UK dealers, other than worried.....?

Should there be a fourth amber card in the pack "Cover all angles, centralise and decentralise; one must work" :)
 
Actually Sealine had its own direct sales offices at Swanwick (Fairline's current office) and Brixham until Brunswick closed them at end of 2006 because they didn't understand the special connection Sealine Sales UK Ltd had with their customers. Then they gave the dealership to BA Peters. Prior to that, Sealine Sales UK Ltd had been running successfully for the previous 20 odd years, whilst still keeping the privately owned dealerships around the country. Sealine also had a direct sales office in Alcudia, Mallorca. So Sealine as a company has a history of running its own sales offices.
 
why should the other UK dealers worry? Sealine has gone full circle back to the good old sealine sales days! those dealers were there then & will be in the future.
i am just concearned that the Ancasta sealine salesman/women may be looking for new employment.
i am sure Ancasta will be back with another power boat brand soon.
 
sgoodwin71 said:
why should the other UK dealers worry? Sealine has gone full circle back to the good old sealine sales days! those dealers were there then & will be in the future.
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Yes except that Sealine has new owners and a new agenda. We don't know whether they will spread the direct selling effort further or not.....
 
voortreker said:
Prior to that, Sealine Sales UK Ltd had been running successfully for the previous 20 odd years, whilst still keeping the privately owned dealerships around the country. .
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I don't think so. The office and yard at Swanwick was Quay Marine for many years who acted as the Sealine dealer. It was only in the mid '90's that Quay Marine were bought out by Sealine and Sealine Sales UK came into being. It certainly doesn't help a manufacturer to maintain customer relations if they're chopping and changing their sales structure. So, in 15yrs or so, the Sealine sales structure has gone Quay Marine - Sealine Sales - Peters - Ancasta and now back to Sealine Sales. Not exactly consistent, is it?
You've got to ask why it made sense in 2006 to close the Sealine Sales office in Swanwick and appoint Peters as the S Coast dealer (and later, Ancasta) but in 2011 it makes sense to go back to Sealine Sales?
 
Somewhere it mentioned that the contract between Sealine and Ancasta was coming to an end, so they'd have been in re-negotiations. Maybe Ancasta wanted a bigger cut and tried to bluff Sealine, or didn't want to continue anyway, or maybe the original contract was too generous to Ancasta and Sealine were losing too much of the selling price, or maybe Ancasta were insisting that Sealine do all the discounting whilst maintaining their own margin, or maybe Sealine wanted the flash showroom to differentiate themselves and Ancasta wouldn't fund it??

There's a myriad of possible reasons for the split, and of course its impossible to know when you're not directly invloved, although there's no harm in speculating.
 
Nick_H said:
Somewhere it mentioned that the contract between Sealine and Ancasta was coming to an end, so they'd have been in re-negotiations. Maybe Ancasta wanted a bigger cut and tried to bluff Sealine, or didn't want to continue anyway, or maybe the original contract was too generous to Ancasta and Sealine were losing too much of the selling price, or maybe Ancasta were insisting that Sealine do all the discounting whilst maintaining their own margin, or maybe Sealine wanted the flash showroom to differentiate themselves and Ancasta wouldn't fund it??

There's a myriad of possible reasons for the split, and of course its impossible to know when you're not directly invloved, although there's no harm in speculating.
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I suspect it wasn't Ancasta that made it difficult to renegotiate the terms. In the present climate, no dealer would want to jeopardise a revenue stream. IMHO its all about the new owners of the company wanting to make a big statement of intent by building a flash new showroom. Only time will tell whether its money well spent
 
Expending capital to create a prestigious looking showroom at first to me did not make a lot of sense. Perhaps I am underestimating the feel good factor to staff and potential buyers. Or perhaps a firm base to expand from is their intention ready when/if the financial climate improves.

Most new boat buyers are canny enough to look at boat quality/value rather than glitzy sales offices.

Therefore, is it that the new investors intention is simply to give the impression of their intention to invest heavily in the Brand seeking to boost buyer confidence? I just don't know, but if they are investing it must surely be a good thing for Sealine owners, as long as this is funded by new money.

Although I have not been boating for very long compared with many on this Forum, I do believe that manufacturers are generally missing out on the potential profit available selling OEM spares and services direct to both new and older boat owners. I hope Sealine take this on board......
 
Most new boat buyers are canny enough to look at boat quality/value rather than glitzy sales offices
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.
More than that, many boat buyers like me ask themselves who is paying for the glitzy offices, fresh coffee and hot and cold running bimbettes and the answer of course is the boat buyer himself. Maybe Americans react favourably to that kind of sales set up but I think we curmudgeonly Brits are a bit more cynical



Although I have not been boating for very long compared with many on this Forum, I do believe that manufacturers are generally missing out on the potential profit available selling OEM spares and services direct to both new and older boat owners. I hope Sealine take this on board
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Yup this is a good point. I have a bee in my bonnet about manufacturers who ignore spare parts business. For me, a well managed spare parts operation means steady cashflow and high margins as well as happy customers. I simply dont understand why so many manufacturers, not only in the boat building industry, ignore this very profitable revenue stream
 
A few people may recall a rumour at London boat show this year that sealine were looking for a new dealer on the south coast! once again, they seem to have departed from thier dealer 2 weeks before a boat show.
surley this cannot be good for sealine, only time will tell!
 
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