CONTINUOUSWAVE

Announced today, June 29, 2018, Brunswick has bought 11 brands of marine electrical products from POWER PRODUCTS:

1. Ancor
2. BEP
3. Blue Sea Systems
4. Czone
5. Del City
6. Lenco Marine
7. Marinco
8. Mastervolt
9. Park Power
10. Progressive Industries
11. ProMariner.

Among those, ANCOR, BLUE SEA SYSTEMS, BEP, and PROMARINER are all my top choice in boat electrical products. This is quite a deal for Brunswick. See more at

https://www.brunswick.com/news/press-releases/detail/202/brunswick-corporation-brunswick-to-acquire-power

Seems like a lot of overlap with Brunswick owned Attwood Marine.

The price for the 11 companies was $910-million. The combined annual revenues are only $233-million. If the net profit margin is 15-percent, then annual profit would be about $33-million. Assuming steady sales, that means 910/33= 27 years to pay back the acquisition costs.

Brunswick says it will use debt to finance some part of the acquisition costs. Let’s say they borrow $500-million. The interest on that debt is going to be substantial. How do you make money growing like this?

Also, expect to see many of these products used on Brunswick boats, and that means a lot of internal sales between Brunswick brands; that will tend to reduce real revenue sales figures.

Jim, after Brunswick eliminates competition (for say Attwood) and lays off a bunch of people and increases prices and moves any manufacturing left in North America offshore, they will make more money. Vertical integration can be very profitable, until there is a recession and boat and RV sales drop and then you have to start selling off unprofitable divisions.
Don

Some years ago Brunswick formed a new operating division, Brunswick New Technologies. They bought a great New Zealand marine electronics company, NAVMAN. Navman made very nice gear--really well-designed and well-made--and was a growing company. After they were taken into the Brunswick ownership, the whole operation fell apart. A few years later the Navman marine electronics were gone, the operation shut down, and the brand erased. I am sure the guy who started Navman probably got a bundle of money, but I suspect he probably regretting seeing his products and brand abandoned by Brunswick a few years later.

Maybe his non competition clause will expire and he will be the inspired to start up again.

I hate when a great company sells out to “come from away business interests” and within a short time, it is shut down and all the local employees are unemployed.

Brunswick ownership of Blue Sea Systems is not getting off to a good start. A major fire destroyed the warehouse and offices of Blue Sea Systems in Bellingham, Washington. This newspaper article gives details:

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/l ... 59585.html