Grady White discontinuing dealers

[capt chris]

Hey everybody,
What is going on at Grady White in Greeneville? My dealer Beaver Park in Lorain, OH just got cancelled and I am now being referred to Drummond Boat Sales in Holland, MI. I've never heard of them and I am actually closer to Detroit than Holland. Is there no longer a dealer in the Detroit area?
Beaver Park had been a dealer for 32 years and they treated me very well. Is this an isolated incident or is GW really shaking up its dealer body? What's really going on? Thanks.

 

[DBV]

I did not know that about Beaver Park. I was just there two weeks ago and they did not say anything about being cancelled.

Hey everybody,
What is going on at Grady White in Greeneville? My dealer Beaver Park in Lorain, OH just got cancelled and I am now being referred to Drummond Boat Sales in Holland, MI. I've never heard of them and I am actually closer to Detroit than Holland. Is there no longer a dealer in the Detroit area?
Beaver Park had been a dealer for 32 years and they treated me very well. Is this an isolated incident or is GW really shaking up its dealer body? What's really going on? Thanks.

 

[capt chris]

DBV,
I don't think they knew it was coming two weeks ago. I got this straight from Pat Grasso @ Beaver Park last Friday. He seemed very shocked and disappointed. It was definitely a surprise to him. I think it is true because when I go to the GW website dealer locator function and type in my zip code, I get a dealer I've never heard of in Holland, Michigan. Last Friday it was still listing Beaver Park.

 

[Parthery]

Could be any of a number of things....GW expects their dealers to maintain a certain average score on their CSIs for new boat deliveries. If they don't maintain it, it can put their franchise in peril.

The other thing is that dealers ultimately have to float the loan to hold the inventory....it may be that GW was asking Beaver Park to take a significant amount of inventory in....and Beaver Park may not have been in a financial position to do so.

The last thing is that Holland, being more in betweeen Detroit and Chicago, may be an opportunity to drive marketing into new markets. GW already has a dealer in upstate NY.

 

[gradytom]

Bought my Islander thru Beaver Park, what a shame.
Lands End Marine in Harrison Township MI is on Lake St. Clair and last time I went by they had Gradys on the lot.

Lands' End Marina
32895 South River Road
Harrison Twp., Michigan 48045

Phone: 586-465-5558 FAX: 586-465-0416

 

[CWOT]

Hey everybody,
What is going on at Grady White in Greeneville? My dealer Beaver Park in Lorain, OH just got cancelled and I am now being referred to Drummond Boat Sales in Holland, MI. I've never heard of them and I am actually closer to Detroit than Holland. Is there no longer a dealer in the Detroit area?
Beaver Park had been a dealer for 32 years and they treated me very well. Is this an isolated incident or is GW really shaking up its dealer body? What's really going on? Thanks.

It's the General Motors story, whats good for the dealer body isn't always what's good for the factory and the Factory Always Rules.
Oh and the Big Box Stores always rule, too. No room any more for the Mom and Pop retailers.

 

[capt chris]

Could be any of a number of things....GW expects their dealers to maintain a certain average score on their CSIs for new boat deliveries. If they don't maintain it, it can put their franchise in peril.

The other thing is that dealers ultimately have to float the loan to hold the inventory....it may be that GW was asking Beaver Park to take a significant amount of inventory in....and Beaver Park may not have been in a financial position to do so.

The last thing is that Holland, being more in betweeen Detroit and Chicago, may be an opportunity to drive marketing into new markets. GW already has a dealer in upstate NY.

Parthery,
I don't understand the reference to upstate New York? Loran, Ohio is still quite a ways away from upstate NY.

 

[capt chris]

I guess next time I'll have to go to Mid Carolina Marine in Columbia, SC or Southeastern Marine in Richmond, VA. I shopped both of them when I bought my 225 and they were both very knowledgeable and very friendly. I wonder who will represent GW @ the boat show @ Cedar Point in September. That's where I sea-trialed my 225 on Lake Erie in the fall of '07 and it convinced me to sell my Whaler and "Get the Grady".

 

[DBV]

I don't know who will represent that show or the Cleveland Boat Show. I think it is very sad. Ohio has a lot of boaters and especially from Cleveland to Toledo, because of Lake Erie. New boat prices, especially the better brands like GW, etc... are so out of whack with the current economy, I am not sure how any of the boat dealers make it right now. Last year the local Edgewater dealer stopped carrying that line and now GW.

I guess next time I'll have to go to Mid Carolina Marine in Columbia, SC or Southeastern Marine in Richmond, VA. I shopped both of them when I bought my 225 and they were both very knowledgeable and very friendly. I wonder who will represent GW @ the boat show @ Cedar Point in September. That's where I sea-trialed my 225 on Lake Erie in the fall of '07 and it convinced me to sell my Whaler and "Get the Grady".

 

[family affair]

New boat prices, especially the better brands like GW, etc... are so out of whack with the current economy

I couldn't agree more, but when material costs keep going up, and builders need profit from a smaller pool, it leaves them little choice. That coupled with stagnent wages for us working saps widens the gap even greater.

I too am not happy about Beaver Park losing Grady, but I can't help but think a dealer in a better boat populated area like Sandusky might pick them up. Lorain is economically depressed, and the demand for small expensive boats isn't what it used to be. Beaver has hardly had any inventory over the past few years. I'm not shocked. Truthfully it doesn't hurt me much bc we don't and probably never will intend to buy new anyway. For me the biggest benefit was for me to look at what was new and pick brain's in the rare event I have an issue. That doesn't pay the bills for Beaver or Grady. Sign of the times unfortunately.

 

[capt chris]

This is exactly why I'm a big proponent of the factory showroom. No dealer can stock all the models with all the options. Most of us spending this amount of money want what we want. A factory showroom in Greenville where we could see all the models all the time, along with a tour of the factory, would build incredble brand loyalty. Most of us have to travel to a dealer or a boat show far from home now anyway to see boats so why not travel to Greenville where we know what we want to see would be available. We could then actually buy/order the boat from our closest local servicing dealer who will take care of us after the sale and maintain the relationship. Dealers could save the expense of floor planning and stocking large inventories, the factory would only be building "sold" boats, out of date/model year inventory would be a thing of the past, and customer satisfaction would be greatly enhanced because we bought the boat we really wanted with the equipment we really wanted. Trying to guess what models, options, engine combinations etc customers want and then stocking the appropriate mix is russian roulette. I think this business model would be a win-win for both the dealer body and the factory. The economic reality has changed forever and the "new normal" requires a fresh approach to the way we all do business, both buyers and sellers. This idea is not an original thought. Several manufacturers are already doing this. Hey Grady, give it some thought!

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Capt Chris,
I bought my 228 from Lockwood Marine near Savanna, GA. They are still in business, but carry virtually no inventory. I have had my boat in for warranty work at Mid-Carolina in Columbia and I really liked their approach to business. They treated me as if I bought my boat from them. If I ever buy another new boat, I will likely give them the nod, assuming our economy is such that they are in business.

Parthery hit the nail on the head though, floor plan money is hard to find for these guys and perhaps when they do find it, the costs to keep a large inventory on hand in these times could be too much for the average dealer to absorb. Lockwood ordered my boat in the winter of 2008 and they sold it to me in April 2009. They had that money tied up for over a year, making payments on a new boat.

With that said, the idea of a factory showroom would be pretty cool and what would be even cooler is if they would sea trial boats too. Ultimately the dealer would be the ones to do this, but it would be nice to be able to sea trial 2 or 3 models one might be interested in to get a feel for each boat. The dealers may not have all the models in stock one might be interested in to sea trial.

 

[capt chris]

Bob,
I visited Lockwood Marine when they were the GW dealer in Jacksonville while vacationing @ Amelia Island. Very nice folks. Marine Max now has the GW franchise in Jacksonville and Lockwood is no longer a GW dealer. The GW website refers Savannah's zip code to Island Marine in Hilton Head, SC.
As far as the manufacturer's showwroom, I know Regal has one as does Cruiser Yacht. I just think it would solve a lot of problems and allow good after sale and servicing dealers who can't afford large floor plans to continue to service the customer and build the long term relationships leading to increased brand loyalty for the manufacturer. I'm just not convinced that many of GW's sales come from impulse buyers who have to buy a boat out of a dealer's inventory right now and are unwilling to order what they want. For the few that do I'm sure there is enough excess production capacity at the factory to divert a boat in production to that "got to have it now" purchaser. Just my thoughts about how to make it work for the manufacturer, dealer, and the customer.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Chris,
you are pretty darn dead on the impulse buy thing. Although we wanted a 275 had the down payment and so forth, but banks in 2009, like today, we not lending money even with a good credit history and so forth, but being self employed we just did not qualify. So I was loyal per se to Lockwood as they were patient with us and Eric Kelly I knew from G&G/Play Two in Edgewater. He had a couple of 225s, the 228 and bigger boats. I looked at the Gulfy they had in stock, but was promised to another buyer. I did sort of impulse buy as we were shopping for months and the deal on the 228 was hard to pass up coupled with wanting to buy from Eric. If they had a Journey in stock, my gut is we would be owning a Journey right now instead of the 228.

Assuming the economy ever comes around for us in the travel and tourism biz, our next boat we really want is an Express 330. I will likely find a used one though and not buy new unless we find a deal and our finances improve. But if those things happen, I will know exactly what I want and would order it like you say.