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MarineMax Ends Its Year With a Loss & Malibu Limits Shipments · The CURRENT

• 0:00
  MarineMax closes its fiscal year with a loss. Malibu says it's limiting shipments to protect its dealers. Brunswick sells its Heyday wake boat brand. And in Alabama, a boat dealer wins a round in a fight over an insurance refund. Now, this is The Current.
• 0:14
  If you work on the water, sell to it, service it, or just can't stay away from it, you're in the right place. This is The Current, the business and news podcast for the marine industry, with weekly news overviews every Friday and engaging interviews as they happen. I'm your host, Jon Logan. Welcome aboard.
• 0:33
  Good evening. I'm Jon Logan. Tonight, what a big retailer and a big builder are saying about retail, and who's buying whom. MarineMax closed its fiscal year with a loss. The retailer reported on Wednesday. Revenue for the year that ended September 30th was 2.2 billion dollars, and the company lost 8.2 million. That's a smaller loss than the year before, which included a big write-down. On an adjusted basis, which strips out items like deal costs, it earned 58 cents a share. Same-store sales fell 5.5 percent for the year, and 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, MarineMax says lower boat sales drove the drop in revenue. Its marinas and its parts and service business grew, and that offset part of it. Only part. Gross margin went the other way. It rose to 34.9 percent for the year, up 2.4 points. Inventory fell 6.3 percent, to about 813 million dollars. CEO Brett McGill called it a challenging retail environment. There was no earnings call this time, and no outlook for next year. That's because Safe Harbor Marinas is buying MarineMax for 53 dollars a share in cash. The companies announced that deal in August. MarineMax expects it to close by the end of this year, if shareholders approve. So ask yourself what this means for your shop. A retailer that size is selling fewer boats. In the fourth quarter, it made more on the boats it did sell, and its marinas and service work kept growing.
• 2:00
  Malibu's report the next day sounded a lot like it. Malibu Boats reported Thursday for the quarter that ended September 30th. Sales were 253 million dollars, up almost 30 percent. But most of that growth came from Saxdor, the brand Malibu bought in March. The Malibu segment, which also includes Axis, sold 9 percent less. CEO Steve Menneto pointed to a softer retail environment over the summer. He said Malibu chose to manage wholesale shipments with discipline to protect dealer health. And he said Malibu will keep matching wholesale shipments to retail demand through this cycle. Malibu is also moving its fiscal year to end December 31st. For the last three months of this year, it expects sales of 236 to 248 million dollars. Then there's the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, which closed Sunday. BMO Capital Markets talked with dealers there. Yahoo Finance reported the firm's findings on Monday. Overall boat sales volumes at the show were down from last year. Weekend weather cut foot traffic, but dealers said more of the people who did come were serious buyers.
• 3:00
  Boats 28 feet and up did relatively well. Average discounts ran about 16 percent, down from 17 a year ago. And dealers there generally expect 2027 unit sales to be flat or down. Brunswick's own show report came out Thursday, and it says Mercury was on about 62 percent of all outboards there, a record. And it says Boston Whaler and Navan beat last year's show revenue, despite the weather. So ask yourself what this means for your shop. Malibu is shipping to retail demand. Not ahead of it. If other builders do the same, the boat your customer wants may not be sitting on your lot. I'd get spring orders in early. That's my take, not theirs.
• 3:39
  Brunswick has sold its Heyday wake and surf brand. The buyer is Whisper Marine. Whisper says it will build Heyday boats at the Crownline plant in West Frankfort, Illinois. It's Whisper's third brand in under a year, after Qwest Pontoons last December and Crownline in June. Whisper's chief operating officer, Paul Hoilman, said, quote, our dealers are the heart of this business. If you sell Heyday, ask your rep now how warranty and parts will work during the move.
• 4:03
  In Maine, the brokerage that represented Port Harbor Marine's seller has announced the sale. Port Harbor was founded in 1974. The sale announcement calls it the largest privately owned boat dealership in the Northeast. It includes three marinas, six sales locations in Maine and Massachusetts, and more than 2,400 slips and storage spaces. The buyer and the price weren't disclosed.
• 4:26
  And a ruling for any dealer who has canceled an insurance policy. In 2023, Gulf Shores Power Sports paid an insurance agency about 196,000 dollars in premiums, then canceled the policies about a month later. The dealer says it's owed at least 75,300 dollars in unearned premiums and commissions. The wholesale broker refunded about 15,000 dollars to the agency. The agency paid that money into court, and a trial judge let the agency out of the case. On Friday, October 23rd, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered the trial judge to put the agency back in the case. It said the dealer's separate claim against the agency was never decided. The case goes back to Baldwin County. If you cancel a policy midterm, get the refund amount in writing.
• 5:11
  The Current is sponsored by Marine Diagnostic Tools. MDT puts dealer-level Jaltest marine diagnostics in the hands of independent marine repair shops and boat surveyors. Full system coverage across the engine brands already in your pipeline, so you stop turning away work because the software says no. Find the right diagnostic kit at marinediagnostictools.com, or call 844-627-4630.
• 5:37
  One more thing. In Grand Junction, Colorado, a boat dealer is adding campers. Sundance Marine is now Sundance Marine and RV. Jeff Taylor bought the dealership in July. He has spent more than 30 years in car and RV dealerships. The store still sells and services boats, but now it also sells truck campers and travel trailers, and it services every make of RV. Storage, too. Gated, for boats and RVs. Taylor says he wants Western Slope families to have one dependable place for both their water and camping needs.
• 6:07
  That's The Current for the week of November 6th. MRAA's Dealer Week runs December 6th through 9th in Tampa. I'm Jon Logan. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and I will see you next Friday.