My humble impression of this Baja thing is that Brunswick forced him to take the Baja outfit... (the name only I guess for not much money if any) so they could sh!tcan the people in Ohio and blame it on Fountain Power Boat.

FPB has basically been on a breathing apparatus from Brunswick/Mercury for a LONG while.


Can't blame them they are in business to make money.

I have a sincere question, and I will preface it by saying that it would be a blow to the industry to see an icon of powerboating go out of business - you never want to see anyone fail.

Question: How many of you avid supporters own FPB stock or, more importantly, are planning on buying it soon?

In light of the new and used powerboating market, general economy, and a host of other factors related to lending, fuel, disposable income, etc... I don't think that many people who took an objective look at their balance sheet or financials, even after the 12M cash infusion would be terribly confident.

And yes, if I lived in N.C. I would be pisssed that my tax money went to bail out a company in the private sector that manufactures boats for the wealthy. If it was privatized energy, or utility, or food, that is one thing, but to use tax money to bail out a manufacturer of one of the ultimate indulgences - that just seems absurd.

Reggie bought Baja and will probably run it under a different corporation number so when it or if it goes down he won't lose Fountain, but if it is a money maker he will milk it so he can play. The only thing I don't like is he gets $12 mil from the state of N.C. (which you know he lined up way before this was a done deal) I guess it is good as a business decision but I fell the state is getting a bad deal, I dought the state will get there money back in the form of taxes. It would have been nice to offer some people in Ohio a transfer if they want to move a lot would not take the offer because of what ever reason. As far as the average salary goes some will get paid huge money and most won't get the state average. I am not a fan of either brand but I hope they both make it since it is good for the whole industry. Just my .02

Fantastic news! Makes me totally forget about all of us in Ohio that lost jobs! :rolleyes:

It is my understanding that Baja was going to go under anyway (only a matter of time), so everyone would have lost their jobs anyway.

At the end of the day it would make more business sense to build both boats in one plant. I'm sure some of the same equip can be used and synergies can be realized in a single plant.

Sorry to hear that....was there any sort of offer where current employees could be relocated to the NC campus?

:D

Given that our tax dollars are used to fund everything from art made of feces, tax breaks for exporting bio-diesel, government funding of Jesse Jackson's pet projects, and handouts to anti American countries....... at least this is something in favor of capitalism.....

T2x

My only question, (and I thought I knew everything:D), is how do you keep the two seperate for income/tax purposes if they are in the same facility? It seems smart, considering what he paid and the product line/dealership network, to purchase it. But it would seem not so smart to roll it into your existing company vs keeping it seperate just in case of continuing losses/potential bankruptcy. The boat economy isn't real good right now, hence the cheap price for the assets/name. What am I missing here?

I agree, and if they could have found a way to ship boats cheap from China, they would probably be gone already. Personnaly, I don't want them to fail. I used to really like Reggie when his sales pitch was he personally tested every boat and was building the company. Somewhere along the way it went wrong on the ego I think. I still think a couple of the models they build and sell are the best available, the 42' is an incredible boat. We need to keep every manufacturing business possible running here.