DaveP

How can a company post a loss and lay off 150 people last week when it has a $50 million dollar backlog of orders???? Unless it was bull$hit?????? naaaaaaaaaaaaa say it ain't so?

Fountain Powerboat Industries reported a loss of profits
Fountain Powerboat Industries’ profits fell during its second quarter, amid a sluggish retail environment.

The company today reported a net loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31 of $1.4 million, compared to profits of $319,296 for the comparable quarter in 2006.

“The overall marine industry has experienced a downward trend for some time and I’m pleased that we have performed well in a difficult environment,” said CEO Reggie Fountain, in a statement.

Fountain says the company is experiencing a decline in dealer orders largely in part to the typically slow season and dealer reluctance to increase inventories.

Sales slipped to $13 million, a decrease of $5 million compared to sales of $18.2 million during the same quarter a year ago.

“The good news is that sales of larger powerboats are expected to show stabilized growth trends, as the economic uncertainties have less impact on our target market,” said Fountain. “But we are finding, along with our peer companies, that it now takes significantly more effort to reach this market.”

The company this year has boosted its presence at boat shows. Company representatives have attended regional and international boat shows to support and assist dealers. The company also plans to boost its presence at the Miami International Boat Show, which opens Thursday.

“We feel confident that stabilized gasoline prices and interest rates, along with a healthy economy, will boost consumer and dealer confidence in the third and fourth quarters,” said Fountain.

The company last year launched a lean manufacturing pilot program. The company has reduced final assembly hours by 51 percent, a reduction of production hours by 35 percent, and it eliminated overtime.

DaveP

On the flip side of things.............

Hair color riding wave of surging sales!!

Drug Store News, January 7, 2007 by Liz Parks

Hair color is another hot growth segment in ethnic beauty care. According to Information Resources Inc, dollar sales of hair color were up 9 percent, while unit sales were up 6 percent for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 1, 2006.

Carson Products president Joyce Roche, who markets one of the leading ethnic color brands, Dark & Lovely, said that buyers can expect to see demand for hair color increasing, driven by fashion and by the demographic changes such as the aging of the baby boomers.

Roche also pointed out that retailers are getting strongly behind the merchandising and marketing of ethnic hair colors, helping "to take sales to a higher level."

Downtown42

Good, they need to raise the prices on new boats. Thank you for your interest in Fountain Powerboats

BBB725

Reggie is doing what put Ford out of business when they first started. They keep changing their hull every year and absorb the cost of doing it.
Fountain has to decide on how to proceed, make money or keep changing the hulls.

the duke

where does it say in the reports that they laid off people?

NickOTeen

According to Powerboat magazine the fact that Reggie and Fountain Powerboats have never filed bankruptcy speaks to the business acumen of Reggie. Is this suppose to be a compliment? I expect the next annual report to go something like this.

Dear Shareholder,
We had another wonderful year at Fountain Powerboats. Our stock is trading for peanuts, but we managed to stay out of bankruptcy again this year. Our founder Reggie Fountain deserves all the credit. He had the foresight to focus all of our potential profits on Cat Killer, which is now cleaning the clocks of many pleasure cat's on the poker run circuit.

Donzi38ZXXX

Maybe the ZR's sre taking some of the market share!

sakoutis3

Reggie cancled the factory support for the racers this year now you know why. Last Fountain spent 2 million dollars on their race program.If they would have cancelled it last year they would have been in the green 1/2 a mil.

Dock Holiday

Whether you like Reggie or hate him, you do have to respect him.

Personally I think the boating industry would be very boring without him and wish him and his company the very best.

They did have a factory guy in Charlotte, David Price and the 38 they had with 700's and #6 drives was VERY nice and priced below a Formula 353 that was at the same show with 525's.

I do understand from an outside source that Brunswick still holds an option to buy the company.

deboatmon

I believe you guys just might be missing the point here. The end of year profit and loss columns can be somewhat missleading. I guess it would depend on your stock holdings on how you feel about that. Many corporations give huge bonuses and even loans to principals just before the end of the year to lessen the corporate tax burden. Coporate tax can be at a somewhat higher rate than even high dollar personal tax.

This not to say anything with absolute surety, but I'd guess that there just might have been some pretty hefty bonuses paid to some persons before the final tax tally was presented to the tax gods. Of course these bonuses might be loaned back to the corporation just after the new year. Who know ?

There are a lot of Fountains sold, so who realy knows.