BRP Sea-Doo to Exit the Sport Boat Business
I am sad to deliver this news. Earlier today BRP announce that will no longer produce their Sport Boats. For years Sea-Doo has made some the most exciting boats on the water. I can remember being a teenager in the mid 1990's flying around the lakes of Arkansas in a fire breathing, twin-engines Sea-Doo Jet Boat. Thank you Sea-Doo for making such an amazing product that has brought a ton of pleasure and fun to so many people! We will miss you.
I want all Central Florida PowerSports and West Coast PowerSports customers to know that we are committed to servicing your Sea-Doo Sport Boats/Jet Boats now and into the future. BRP is hosting an all-dealer conference call today at 4PM. I will update this post if there is more information.
Sincerely,
Jason Ennis, GM
Central Florida PowerSports
Letter from BRP:
[quote]Valcourt, September 14, 2012 Dear friends, ® Earlier today, we announced our decision not to resume production of Sea-Doo sport boats for the upcoming model year and take steps to exit that business over the next coming months. At BRP, we manage a diversified product portfolio and our sport boat line-up accounts for a small share of our total sales. This decision will allow us to focus our efforts on products with greater growth potential, which is in the best long-term interests of the company and our network. With the recent downturn in the marine industry, we cannot foresee growth potential in the sport boat business, making it difficult to justify any additional investment. After careful consideration, we concluded that it was better for us to exit the business. This was a very difficult decision, especially given the impact on our employees in Benton (Illinois) and Palm Bay (Florida), the impact on a select group of dealers and distributors, and considering the efforts we made as a company creating the sport boat business. Sincerely, José Boisjoli President and CEO [/quote]
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Jason Ennis
September 17, 2012
I have had a few readers ask if this announcement had any impact on the Sea-Doo Personal Watercraft (PWC).
Answer: No. Sea-Doo PWC will continue as normal but may benefit from an increased marketing and Research/Development budget. BRP claims Sport Boat was only 3% of their total business and by exiting the boat business they would be able to allocate more resources to other segments of the PowerSports industry in which they are involved.