Why have southerly gone bust (again)?

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Oscarpop

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Maybe I'm naive , maybe because I own one and am very happy with it, I can't see why southerly have gone under again? They seem to have a niche in the market with the high end swing keel thing ( as opposed to ovni and alike that have lifting keels).

So my theories are that.

1. After the last fold, buyers and suppliers became inherently distrustful of them and no one put any orders in or refused to supply parts.

2. That's just the way the market is. Very expensive yachts that in some peoples eyes do not have the pedigree of halberd rassy/ oyster etc therefore they will buy those marques instead

3. It's another "tax restructuring" and they will resurface again at a later date, or be swallowed up by another company .

Either way, It would be a shame to see them go. I guess I'm hoping for a positive outcome rah her than being realistic.

What is the consensus with you lovely people ?
 
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Not enough punters prepared to pay that sort of money and not enough volume to keep costs down. All sorts of reasons why there is a lack of customers, most of them outside the control of the builder, but no doubt some relationship with the recent past - even though no buyer seems to have lost money, just the poor old suppliers - again.
 
A lot of premium boat builders have gone in the last few years, even though (apparently) the economy is supposed to be back to pre crisis levels, most boat builders are struggling. The second hand market is buoyant
 
flawed_logic said:
A lot of premium boat builders have gone in the last few years, even though (apparently) the economy is supposed to be back to pre crisis levels, most boat builders are struggling. The second hand market is buoyant
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Second hand boats might be selling but only at rock bottom prices
 
What was the final tally of yacht manufacturers who called in the administrators post 2006? From vague recollection...

Sunseeker
Dufour
Aspect (Cornish Crabbers & Uk Hunter)
HR
Malo

I think the following got through:

Rustler
Fairline
Bavaria
Beneteau
 
I blame the huge increase in stamp duty. People cannot move house without losing a huge part of their personal fortune to stamp duty. Consequently people do not move, they do not make equity withdrawals to spend on new boats. In addition the rising cost of oil and metals has meant that prices of boats have risen faster in real terms than disposable incomes.

Most of Europe have economies that are shrinking , the UK is the exception only because the government manufacturer a mini housing boom. Now they have killed the housing market with their new affordability tests, we too will not escape the downturn but we will probably not realise it until after the election. If you want to se a perfect storm, this will happen if the money policy committee decide to increase interest rates to put a break on the economy then, we will have a huge ouse price crash and a massive downturn in the economy and few boat manufacturers will survive.

I believe that government need to treat manufacturing businesses differently. the problem with most businesses is that they have too many fixed costs. For a business to survive it needs to be able to reduce costs in a downturn and that means being able to lay off people and not paying business rates. Rates need to go, taxation should be related to profits.
 
Camelia said:
Perhaps the market saw what they did last time and found a long enough bargepole; they lost me as a potential customer.
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I suspect that had a lot to do with it, the way they protected the assets and dumped on the suppliers must have made an impact on obtaining credit, and with buyers deposits out of reach then they may not have been able to generate enough cash flow to fund the business.

I think these days people look very much more carefully at phoenix companies
 
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Camelia said:
Perhaps the market saw what they did last time and found a long enough bargepole; they lost me as a potential customer.
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Particularly if, as seems may be the case, they again engineered the business so it didn't have any assets (land, machinery, design IP) - in this event then any buyer and/or supplier doing due diligence would have been put off. It would look as if expecting to fail again.
(note "if" - yet to become clear if the business was again structured in a similar way to last time)
 
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Seven Spades said:
I blame the huge increase in stamp duty. People cannot move house without losing a huge part of their personal fortune to stamp duty.
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I'm not sure I would see 7% of a house selling price of £2m+ as "a huge part" ... it's a couple of year's unearned income on the house value at most. Besides, we're largely in the mess we're in because of the house price bubble, and anything which slows that down or reverses it is a Good Thing for the country. If perhaps not for Foxtons, LVMH or Northshore Mouldings.
 
jonjo5 said:
I think the following got through:

Rustler
Fairline
Bavaria
Beneteau
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Bavaria effectively went bust, and their parent company lost around €1bn in a debt-for-equity swap, in 2009. That seems to have been more as a result of the boys with braces thinking they saw a killing than will a fundamental weakness in the business, though I think they are still running at less than half capacity.

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/409880/bavaria-up-for-sale-as-investors-lose-millions
 
JumbleDuck said:
Bavaria effectively went bust, and their parent company lost around €1bn in a debt-for-equity swap, in 2009. That seems to have been more as a result of the boys with braces thinking they saw a killing than will a fundamental weakness in the business, though I think they are still running at less than half capacity.

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/409880/bavaria-up-for-sale-as-investors-lose-millions
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Not quite the lads in braces sold out at top euro to a bunch of venture capitalists with a 100% mortgage, sales dried up and they could no longer service the loans
 
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