Hmm? New ownership and wait and see, not really wait and see though that's alright. We are well past wait and see and we are pretty transparent.
First, we want to say on TFF how excited we are to see the Bassmasters Classic, on Conroe, in Houston this March. We are pulling out all stops for this and we want to see all of the TFF and Bass Boat Central crowd there. We are going to work hard to do something special there. This, we think, will be by far the largest Bassmasters Classic ever.
Otherwise, Well... we are half way into our second year with the new transition and things are clicking along very well. We made the choice we did for many reasons. Every day the staff here functions and operates almost just like we did before. I am still the President and still make those decisions that I made prior. My term of commitment to the group was a 10 year stretch and when that time comes we can see where things are. In about eight or nine (8 to 9) years we will see where things are and make the decisions we need to.
As far as changes, I hired a new CPA to replace my sister, my brother-in-law exited to his own business just before this. I added a new National Sales Manager, we moved Ivan over to Yar-Craft brand manager and he has some in house Bass Cat dealers. I replaced the previous Parts & Service Manager with Lisa Jones and moved things around a bit. Otherwise we have exactly the same staff in all management areas. We have gained some financial support and the CC group added some administration staff, which really does help us and the other outside companies. As a total family company we used outside staff before.
Mom and Dad (Ron & Jan Pierce) are totally out and aging as gracefully with 80's as anyone can. Their shares were sold to the Correct Craft (CC) company, which also owns Nautique. Function wise things are the same way we ran it for decades. We have a stronger budget in areas, are more focused on growth and we have increased our dealer support. This move gave Mom & Dad an exit plan, in about ten years it gives me an exit plan as I age further and time to train staff. It secures the company for those who have dedicated their lives to building Bass Cat Boats (45 years) and now Yar-Craft Boats.
In Bass Boats we earned the last five (5) consecutive Best In Customer Service awards given by JD Power and Associates. That is where we met Bill Yeargin of CC, and Nautique. Nautique holds EVERY single JD Power award, nine (9) total, for the wake board and tow boat industry. They always wanted our first chair in #1 position, as the best in customer service for the entire Marine Industry. Over those years they (Nautique) were always in the Top 5. Others in the Top 5 consistently were Cobalt and Grady-White.
As for CC, it allows each company to run on it's own as independent and the corporate structure is there through them, though not internally a major challenge. We make all decisions here of any product and materials for the boats and not one thing has been compromised. Correct Craft is very focused on customer service and wants each brand to be the best product and most innovative in their industry, and chose what they felt were industry leaders in their segments. Not once in these 18 months has there been a question to cut quality or impact pricing, they want better, not cheaper. They have given us no input on how to price boats or build programs. Their support has been a tailwind, not a head wind.
The 1st to join Nautique at CC was Aktion Parks, an overhead attraction in a tow cable ski/wake company outside Orlando and now park #2 is in Miami. The 2nd company to join CC was PCM (Pleasure Craft Marine-
http://www.pcmengines.com/) which builds engines for many tow boats, Bass Cat was the third (3rd) along with the company I bought, which is Yar-Craft. After our transition the sister company of Centurion & Supreme in California was added. And the last company is now SeaArk in Monticello, AR, which is a premier aluminum boat. All are leaders in their segment in a variety of ways and all are Premium products.
Each of our companies operates independent of the others, with no crossover in operations. We each run independent other than to help our sister companies. There are no rebates, loyalty discounts, or bonuses for being a dealer with multiple brands from CC and no other joined interest. We each stand on our own.
The plan is on track to continue and build Bass Cat just as we have for over 45 years, and the only thing we've beena sked is how we make it better. Pretty nice to hear that from your board of directors.
That should answer it all again.
Hope to see many of you on Conroe and at the Classic in Houston!
Rick Pierce, President
Bass Cat & Yar-Craft Boats
PS: The other question we hear is whether SeaArk will now build a Bass Cat aluminum bass boat, and that presently is not in the cards. We both have enough concepts to keep us busy the next 2 or 3 years and then we will revisit that thought. Their present order backlog is about 6 months.
