posted 08-01-2015 10:16 AM ET (US)        

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LAKE FOREST, Ill., Jan. 3, 2005

Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC) announced today it has acquired Sea Pro Boats, Inc., and Sea Boss Boats, LLC, of Newberry, S.C., for approximately $51 million in cash. These entities produce the Sea Pro, Palmetto and Sea Boss brands of saltwater fishing boats. Additionally, there is a $4 million earn-out provision in the transaction, which will be based on achieving 2005 performance objectives. These brands had sales estimated at approximately $80 million in 2004.

The Sea Pro, Sea Boss and Palmetto brands will join with Brunswick's Boston Whaler to form a new Saltwater Boat Group, based in Edgewater, Fla. Michael W. Myers, currently president of Boston Whaler, will head up the new business unit, reporting directly to Dustan E. McCoy, president of the Brunswick Boat Group. Sea Pro will continue to be based in Newberry with founder Tommy Hancock remaining as president. He will report to Myers, who also will continue to direct day-to-day operations at Boston Whaler until a successor is named.

"Two strategic goals for Brunswick are to 'fill in the white space' in key and growing segments of boating and to better 'embrace our dealers' by offering them the opportunity to represent a broad array of boats and prestigious brands. We believe this acquisition fulfills both of those objectives," explained Brunswick Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George W. Buckley. "Boston Whaler is one of the best known and most highly regarded brands in boating. The Sea Pro, Sea Boss and Palmetto brands will augment our saltwater portfolio. In turn, as with all our acquisitions, we will focus Brunswick's financial and technical resources and expertise on growing and advancing these brands."

"As we have done with other companies that have joined the Brunswick Boat Group, we have found an able and inventive partner in Sea Pro," said McCoy.

"These are strong brands with solid management and operations, along with a dedicated work force. We look forward to the contributions they will make to the Boat Group, and believe that with our focus, commitment and the additional resources Brunswick can offer, these operations will become stronger in the marketplace."

"A 17-year veteran of the boating industry, Mike Myers has done an excellent job of solidifying the reputation and raising the profile of Boston Whaler, one of the most prominent brands in boating," explained McCoy. "With the combination of the well-known and respected Sea Pro, Sea Boss and Palmetto brands, a stalwart management team and a dedicated organization focusing on saltwater, the Brunswick Boat Group will now have a more meaningful presence in offshore fishing, and a more complete and potent line-up for our dealers."

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At the time of acquisition, SEA PRO boats were built with the option available to install pre-rigging for the following brands of outboard engines:

--Yamaha
--Mercury
--Bombardier
--Suzuki
--Honda

(Taken from the former website of SEA PRO boats.)

At the time of the acquisition, there was a long, lively, and informative discussion about it. This discussion--like almost every discussion or article for the past 20 years--is still available in the archives. See

Whaler President Promoted; New Brands Acquired
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/008913.html

For a while, Brunswick organized its management structure so that heads of individual boat brand manufacturing operations reported to a group executive. One of these groups was called the SALTWATER GROUP. At one time the SALTWATER GROUP of Brunswick brands included:

--Sea Pro
--Sea Boss
--Palmetto
--Boston Whaler

This group was headed by Michael W. Myers, who was promoted from head of Boston Whaler to be head of the SALTWATER GROUP.

About two years later, in a 2007 corporate re-shuffling of responsibilities, Brunswick announced that managers of the individual boat brands would report directly to the CEO of Brunswick, Mr. McCoy. In this process of musical chairs, Mr. Myers was left standing when the music stopped, and he was out of a job. These moves were quite carefully described in a lengthy article available at

Brunswick Marine Re-Organization
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/013627.html

While the executive and management changes were going on, Brunswick in 2006 announced it was returning the LAGUNA brand to manufacturing. The LAGUNA brand boats were to be made by the SALTWATER GROUP. However, there was some thinking that the LAGUNA brand was actually just a name change for SEA PRO boats. LAGUNA had been a successful model name used previously by SEA RAY. The new LAGUNA brand boats were made in Newberry, South Carolina, where the SEA PRO production facilities were located. Again, there was a long, informative, and quite insightful discussion of this announcement. See

Brunswick brings back Laguna line
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/012407.html

In 2008 the roof fell in. In a May 2008 announcement, Brunswick informed that it was closing the production facilities in Newberry, South Carolina and ceasing production of the following boat brands:

--SEA PRO
--SEA BOSS
--PALMETTO
--LAGUNA

The revived LAGUNA brand had lasted only one year (or less). The deep recession in the recreational boat market caused the shut down. For a discussion of those events at that time, see

Who's Closing Next?
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/016118.html

Now the story can move ahead, to the present. The SEA PRO brand of boats is resuming production. One of the original owners of the SEA PRO brand, Jimmy Hancock, and others have announced they are reviving the brand. A new $5.5-million production facility of 200,000-square feet in Newberry County, South Carolina, will be used to manufacture SEA PRO boats. An estimated 238 new jobs will be created.

The SEA PRO brand of boats has its own boat-owner and enthusiasts website, SEAPROBOATOWNERS.COM, and on that forum a participant, apparently a representative of the new SEA PRO boat company (abbreviated new SP) and using the user-id "seaproboats" posted the following information:

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...let me start out with a few points of interest to hopefully clear up some misconceptions that may be floating around.

Sea Pro was originally founded by Jimmy and Tommy Hancock as equal partners. Tommy went on to start Sportsman boats with Dale Martin (former owner of Key West boats) a few years after selling to Brunswick. Tommy has nothing to do with the new Sea Pro. Jimmy is the President of the new SP and he has partnered with long time friend and founder of Tidewater Boats, Preston Wrenn as VP.

The original factory was located in Newberry SC, just about 15 miles up the road from The Hancock's home town of Chapin. Currently the office and temp facility for the new Sea Pro is located in Chapin while the up-fitting of our new 205,000 Sq/Ft permanent facility is being completed in Whitmire SC.

The new SP line is going to be completely new from scratch in every way! It has been in the works for about a year and a half as we had to make sure all our ducks were in a row and an amicable agreement with Brunswick Corp was reached to assure no legal issues down the road.

We expect to unveil 7 new models by mid-May of this year. We will once again raise the standard for the mid-tier center console market offering standard features that are unparalleled in our category. We will also introduce an unheard of 3 year stem to stern warranty along with a 10 year hull warranty on all models.

Please "like" our new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Sea-Pro-Boats/668618359913370

and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/seaproboats

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(Read more: http://seaproforum.proboards.com/thread/3729/ sea-pro-new-wave?page=2#ixzz3hZYtcox7 )

posted 08-10-2015 04:54 AM ET (US)         

With the advent of a molded composite stringer system, there are a lot of different brands offering a very decent boat.