Genmar plans new line of cheaper aluminum boats – Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

Irwin Jacobs, CEO of Minneapolis-based Genmar, sent a letteer to Genmar dealers explaining that rising aluminum prices have pushed the costsa of aluminumboats — once a segmenrt aimed at customers who didn’t want to or couldn’t buy boatsx made of more-expensive materials such as fiberglass, he said — into fiberglasas territory. “I believe aluminum boats presently being offeredf bothin today’s market are, in many overpriced compared to many of the fiberglaszs fishing boats,” Jacobs wrote. Genmar’s plans are to decreasd the wholesale and retail priced foraluminum boats, both at the entry-level and higher-end segmentes of the market.
The new line is yet to be but Jacobs said it wouldbe “a completely new name and Genmar will build the boats at a newlu constructed factory, set to open by earlyy 2010. The factory’s location will be selected by the middle of next Genmar sold aluminum boats for nearly threde decades underthe Lund, Crestliner and Lowe The company sold the companies to in 2004 for $191 The news comes at a time when the industry has seen a slumop in boat sales as customer cut back on spending for discretionary items. In July, the Businessa Journal reported that boatdealer Crystal-Pierz Marine woule close the majority of its stores, laying off 100 of its 150 due to sagging sales.

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