I agree with what you have posted Chris but what we are seeing in this country directly reflects the above.

We are losing ALL the bricks and mortar manufacturing jobs in this country. That is what made this country great and really the only thing that can keep it strong.

While these service jobs may pay more over time no one will be able to afford the services without the manufacturing jobs.

True, but in some ways the cycle is swinging back. I deal with alot of folks in the specialty macine trades. Most of them are very busy right now. Several years back, alot of their work went to China- especially molds and tooling. What China sent was usually lower quality, lesser lifespan or sometimes totally unusable. Now tooling buyers have been looking at some numbers and seeing that Chinese tooling didn't save them the kind of $$ they thought. Problem is, the supplier-side has contracted. Some of the tool makers have gone under so capacity isn't there. That's helped bring prices up for the guys that remain. problem is, there's a shortage of qualified personnel right now.

Sure, things have changed. The only permanent thing is change. Just as the Chinese took precision tooling, it's coming back. It may go somewhere else someday but something will take it's place. I don't envision the Chinese bringing us high performance boats anytime soon though.

The guys that can afford a brand new Cig or Skater are probably not the ones who are relly affected byhow much a gallon of gas costs or the state of our economy right now. They have made money and will continue making it no matter what.

As far as Fountains profitablity, just because you can make a fast boat that wins races doesn't mean you are a good business man. Boat manfactures really need to look into lean manufacturing and improving process to become more effiecient at what they do. I am not talking about cutting corners, but improving they manufacturing processes to save time, money and labor.

Obviously, Brunswick (like Genmar with Scarab years before) wants out of the performance-boat market. What does that tell you about the company's confidence in that market?

Yes, they own Mercury Racing, but Mercury Racing, from everything I've been told, is a cash cow. In terms of profit margins, it's a rock star. So Brunswick will stay in the go-fast power game.

Selling to Fountain, in which Brunswick has a vested interest is succcess, was inspired. The brands most likely will be positioned like Lexus as Fountain (I know, its a stretch) and Baja as Toyota.

As for the people in Bucyrus ... if there's one thing good old corporate America has demonstrated in the last three decades, it's that the good old American worker is disposable. It's shameful.

Go to Fountain Website! Its official.

What strikes me as odd is that Fountain has said outright it will not be offering employment to current Baja boat building personnel.

What does this mean?

Reggie certainly couldn't have the excess physical production space nor the personnel to assume Baja's existing production volume. Even if he had the space, who would build the boats? I know some of boatbuilding is basic labor jobs but those jobs still require knowledge and skill, not to mention a willingness to do that sort of work.

So he's taking the name, the molds and the equipment but no space or employees. How will he be building Baja boats?

Funny part is I actually like that better!!! :evilb:

Chris,

I agree with you about the value of skilled labor, of course. But in terms of space, Fountain has plenty of it, and probably can absorb Baja without having to expand its physical plant. Also, though I have no idea what the employments numbers are in Washington, N.C., I suspect Fountain will have no trouble expanding its labor pool.

The reason Fountain isn't offering employment in Washington to the crew in Bucyrus has to be directly related to one thing: cost.

Nice, huh? Once again, welcome to corporate America.

Those are the numbers I used in one of my posts and are not acutal numbers, I just pulled them out of the air. I used those numbers to make the math easy and show my point of view.

Google/ News/ Brunswick
It's true. CNN .com, Forbes.com. Bucyrus Ohio Newspapers, etc. ect. etc.