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Taylor Made Sold

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:12 am
by jimh
During the classic era of Boston Whaler boats, many of the windshield components were Taylor Made products. As recently as five years ago, many of these components were still being made and were available from Taylor Made. Earlier this year, the Taylor Made company ("Taylor Made Group LLC) was sold to Lippert Components, Inc. Here is the announcement of the sale:

TAYLOR MADE GROUP, LLC ANNOUNCES SALE OF THE COMPANY TO LIPPERT COMPONENTS, INC.
http://www.taylormadeproducts.com/news/18-0201.pdf

I hope that legacy products as used in older Boston Whaler boats will continue to be made, or at least some stock of parts is maintained.

Re: Taylor Made Sold

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 10:31 am
by porthole
Lippert is a RV component manufacturer. My guess is they build 99% of the frames used in fifth-wheel recreational trailers. I have seen this trend in the RV industry over the last 15 years and especially in the last five years with a growing economy and the recreational industry booming after almost completely going under 10 years ago.

Lippert has been buying up small component companies.

Thor has been buying up RV manufacturers.

Camping world has been buying up RV dealerships.

And RV parks and campgrounds are being bought by a couple different conglomerates.

Maybe they will be branching out into the boating business.

Re: Taylor Made Sold

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:14 pm
by jimh
Consolidation of suppliers in the boating industry has been underway (a pun) for some time. See this article about how Brunswick now owns just about every decent supplier of boat electrical devices:

More Consolidation: Brunswick Buys 11 Favorite Brands
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3550

Re RV sales and distribution: my impression is recreational vehicles or campers or travel trailers or motor homes are highly consolidated for sale at a few mega-dealers. When I drive north on I-75 to northern Michigan I pass two enormous RV dealers, and each has literally hundreds of RV's on their sales lot. I don't think there are many Mom-and-Pop RV dealers. My view might be skewed because I am close to the center of RV manufacturing: northern Indiana.

Also, on the road these days I see far more vehicles towing travel trailers than towing larger boats. Guys blow past me with diesel-engine tandem-axle fifth-wheel rigs towing very big travel trailers at a far greater frequency than anyone goes by towing a boat bigger than about 16-feet.

Re: Taylor Made Sold

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:20 am
by jimh
Lippert Components Inc., the company that acquired Taylor Made and other marine-upholstery businesses in the past few years, has recently filed a lawsuit against its former president, Scott Mereness, charging that using confidential information Mereness made personal investments for his own benefit into business that Lippert was intending to acquire, according to a report in TRADE ONLY.