Inventory Floor Planning Solutions

Posts Tagged ‘Brunswick Corporation’

Now let’s turn to some key factors that influenced our wholesale sales, that is the boats we sold to our dealer network. In addition to the underlying retail demand, another factor that is having an effect on overall wholesale demand is the availability and cost of floor plan financing. Several traditional floor plan lenders have exited the market or materially reduced their exposure, and the remaining lenders have imposed stricter lending criteria as they seek to protect the quality of their loan portfolios.

Although Brunswick dealers continue to benefit from the financing availability provided by BAC, our joint venture with GE, beginning April 1, dealers became subject to revised terms, including higher financing costs and long curtailment payments. These changes translate to higher costs for dealers to carry inventory, which has led Brunswick and our dealers to reassess and ultimately reduce wholesale orders. This will ultimately lead to a healthier Marine environment with lower inventory levels held in the dealer system.

In response to these market factors, and our strategy to do all we can to protect our dealer network, we’ve reduced the number of units that we sold to dealers nearly 60% in the second quarter versus last year. This is the same percentage decline experienced in the first quarter of 2009.

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