This people is what it is really all about, read it until it sinks in!

Fountain Powerboats, like many business these days, has been put in a position where there was no other choice but to lay people off. These people are no different than any of the rest of us. They have family and responsibilities to take care of. Count your blessings if you still have a business to run tomorrow or a job to go to in order to take care of those that count on you. It's not a pretty world out there these days.

Fountain has been given a chance to make it work, he's not trying to move production to Mexico or China. At least give him credit for that.


P.S. Yes I'm a Fountain fan! And I hope to hell Reggie pulls this off! Don't like that?

Well ..........

We are limited with brands already. Really dont need one of the big dogs goin under. I like fountain, I like alot of brands. Hell if I had the cake to waste on any boat probably would be something else, but fountains are alot of boat for the money and who wants to see anyone fail. Love him or hate him his product is pretty good for certain reasons. Fountain just out grew the market. Company kind of ate itself. May go back to the basics, build to order, keep less employees working as much as possible and come out a smaller and more profitable company.

Almost all boat companys have their place. How boring would it be to see fountains disapear?

By reading this and other threads what seems the side that people seem to think is against fountain is most are not against reggie as an idividual but against his business decisions when people say things like "fountain outgrew the market" that did not have to happen it was the choice of the idividual running the company.

This affects everyone in the industry as stated before because when he the company files BR than other companies have to eat costs. Maybe not as much mercury but think all boats are made of resin and fiber and that only come from a couple companies so they may have to raise costs a little or even worse put another company on COD just because they build boats guilty by association. Then look at the financing companies they do not want to finace boats or floorplan them because some manufacturers had their dealers floorplan 10 or 20 boats or more that they now cannot sell or the bank has got back as the dealer went under or reorganized. This in turn has an effect on the whole industry because some companies "outgrew the market".

You are correct in everything you just stated. HOWEVER, I just don't think anyone had anticipated a market turn this dramatic. It is a great lesson to be learned by all. I hope that it teaches our younger generation values that our parents and to a greater extent our grandparents learned and practiced.

The problem with the "downturn" is before this downturn there was huge upturn larger than ever before in the industry and other industry's also. Some people looked and said this cannot last but I'm getting as much as I can without jeopodzing what I have and others said I'm going all in and not looking back at trends or historical events or why or how all of a sudden there are more customers than ever these are the companies who are now hurting more than ever.

Anyone who says they did not see a downturn should have learned at a very young age that what goes up will come down and it will crash hard.

For the record I myself did not completly understand the upturn I questioned it but did not know why it was happening but I am not or was not ceo of a company and I did not have other people depending on me to see this happening.

[QUOTE=db71;2973427]By reading this and other threads what seems the side that people seem to think is against fountain is most are not against reggie as an idividual but against his business decisions when people say things like "fountain outgrew the market" that did not have to happen it was the choice of the idividual running the company.


I agree. Outgrew the market=more overhead/debt than revenue

Always want to be leaner working at capacity then larger, more exspense, and not enough revenue. No one plans on getting big and the bottom falling out, but hopefully all works out in the end.

You could make the argument that during the economic boom that Fountain wisely used resources to enter other markets such as the cruiser and fish boat markets so that they would have greater diversity when facing the inevitable downswing hopefully creating an environment of sustainability.....there appears to me to be a certain amount of glee by some who obviously are getting some kind of enjoyment out of Fountain's struggles.....I get the impression it has nothing to do about the boats or business decisons but everything to do about a disdain for either Reggie himself or his marketing tactics.....Reading Fountainemp's post kind of brings things home...Reggie has fed a lot of families for a long time....its worth thinking about the next time one of his advertisements rubs you wrong

well said

I feel the same way!!!

I agree with the beginning of your statement, but not the end. The people on the factory floor and all of the other supporting roles helped to feed the boss as much as he did them. Bottom line is no matter how much the compnay attempted to diversify, they failed. And to get to a point that they failed to the tune of, what $20 million, they failed miserably and not in months time or even two. You can believe to rack up that kind of debt they have been operating on borrowed time for a while.