Sea-Dated
Charter Member
Oompah Loompa B-Ball Team? :rofl:
Headlines
Setback for Reggie?
- Thread starter Magicfloat
- Start date
Oompah Loompa B-Ball Team? :rofl:
Magicfloat
Charter Member
30K a month is no hill for a stepper.You have to remember,the big note was 19.5 million,now it's onlly 6.75 million. Regions Bank took the nearly 13 million hit. I honestly think Reggie had this planned all along,he just did not expect Oxford to be a player. But who really knows.I don't have a dog in this fight,other than to hope no companies fail in my industry. Looks like Reggie may be smarter than some give him credit for.
JupiterSunsation
New member
so a grand a day will keep the OX away......not terrible but he might need a few more bucks to ramp up production and buy powertrains from Mercury. I suspect the vendors have dropped him into a cash term basis.....
Cash Bar
Charter Member
Everyone likes to watch train wrecks in slow motion. Even judges. :willy_nilly:
Offshoredrillin
New member
most dont get it, he has to pay back the 30G a month while reorganizing the company. IF they give him the money to do so, he just tacked an additional 7mill onto his note. a restructure doesn't allow him to walk away from the debt, it only postpones the due date, while adding 7 mill to it...go ahead fools buy a fountain, fonzi, faja, whatever you want to call it. it aint worth the glass it is made of....
Matt Trulio
Contributor
With all due respect guys,
Make fun. Have fun. Tease and kid. You go big in public, you fail big in public. Fair enough.
But this is nothing to celebrate. Production-boat building, and the associated pricing that comes with it, isn't "over" per se. But what will take its place in the future? Oh my. Something you can't imagine.
What blows me away about all of the ... I don't know what to call it ... vitriol now directed at Reggie Fountain is really simple: What did he do to you?
What? You're angry at his hair? Or that he had a pretty young wife? Or that, like your favorite pro athlete, he talked a lot of smack?
OK, I am the first to tell you, I didn't dig the whole Cat Killer marketing at poker runs. Totally inappropriate for the event, in my view. But the rest ... the hair, the style, the ego, the hype? Who cares? Get over it.
Did the boastful advertising bug you? Dear lord, that's why they call it advertising.
Spoke to Peter Hledin the other day for an unrelated story. He was downright ... sad ... about the Fountain situation. He praised Reggie up and down ... and if you follow this industry you know they had a difficult relationship.
Spoke so Phil Lipshutz of Cigarette dealer Lip-Ship Performance today on an unrelated story. Out of nowhere, nothing but praise and respect for Reggie. Not a negative word.
So I would ask you armchair haters: What do you know that Peter Hledin, Phil Lipschutz and a host of others (I could continue dropping names but it would be bad form) do not?
Hate his style ... he put it out there in the public light, so have at.
Hate his products ... they're not for everyone.
Hate his hype ... it was relentless.
But take glee in his failure? With zero, and I do mean zero, "due respect," that is just ignorant of the bigger picture.
I often agree with T2X. I often disagree with him. But on at least one point, he is correct: The demise of Fountain, Baja, Donzi and all the production boat guys is, if you care one bit about having choices in your performance boat options, a disaster. And not, as T2X would agree, anything that will be resolved anytime soon.
So why does it matter? Hell, the custom boat guys like Cigarette and Skater, though down, will survive.
Yes they will. And how many of you are "in the market" for that kind of purchase.
It's fun to Reggie bash. Public figure, big personality, the basing comes with the territory. But gleefully celebrating the bankruptcy of Fountain?
That's just stupid. Really stupid. Because in the end, that failure serves no one.
Make fun. Have fun. Tease and kid. You go big in public, you fail big in public. Fair enough.
But this is nothing to celebrate. Production-boat building, and the associated pricing that comes with it, isn't "over" per se. But what will take its place in the future? Oh my. Something you can't imagine.
What blows me away about all of the ... I don't know what to call it ... vitriol now directed at Reggie Fountain is really simple: What did he do to you?
What? You're angry at his hair? Or that he had a pretty young wife? Or that, like your favorite pro athlete, he talked a lot of smack?
OK, I am the first to tell you, I didn't dig the whole Cat Killer marketing at poker runs. Totally inappropriate for the event, in my view. But the rest ... the hair, the style, the ego, the hype? Who cares? Get over it.
Did the boastful advertising bug you? Dear lord, that's why they call it advertising.
Spoke to Peter Hledin the other day for an unrelated story. He was downright ... sad ... about the Fountain situation. He praised Reggie up and down ... and if you follow this industry you know they had a difficult relationship.
Spoke so Phil Lipshutz of Cigarette dealer Lip-Ship Performance today on an unrelated story. Out of nowhere, nothing but praise and respect for Reggie. Not a negative word.
So I would ask you armchair haters: What do you know that Peter Hledin, Phil Lipschutz and a host of others (I could continue dropping names but it would be bad form) do not?
Hate his style ... he put it out there in the public light, so have at.
Hate his products ... they're not for everyone.
Hate his hype ... it was relentless.
But take glee in his failure? With zero, and I do mean zero, "due respect," that is just ignorant of the bigger picture.
I often agree with T2X. I often disagree with him. But on at least one point, he is correct: The demise of Fountain, Baja, Donzi and all the production boat guys is, if you care one bit about having choices in your performance boat options, a disaster. And not, as T2X would agree, anything that will be resolved anytime soon.
So why does it matter? Hell, the custom boat guys like Cigarette and Skater, though down, will survive.
Yes they will. And how many of you are "in the market" for that kind of purchase.
It's fun to Reggie bash. Public figure, big personality, the basing comes with the territory. But gleefully celebrating the bankruptcy of Fountain?
That's just stupid. Really stupid. Because in the end, that failure serves no one.
DAREDEVIL
Banned
In the last 20 + years,,how often was Cig and others bankrupt and how often was fountain ?????
Just a little hint.:lurk5:
DAREDEVIL
Banned
Tank
Charter Member
I believe Cig has gone through two BK's...What's your point? I can tell you this...The owners that BK'd Cig are NO LONGER THERE! I wouldn't bring up the BK of another company that actually got rid of the person that BK'd it and moved onward and upward.
However, I've read RF’s direct quote (as a matter of fact I believe it was in an interview with Matt) that he's never gone BK when others have...Bragging as usual. Guess he can't use that bullsh!t line anymore. Now if he'll take out the lie that his boats are the fastest, safest, best handling boats on the water we'll be getting somewhere.
I don’t cheer and am not happy that Fountain Powerboats went BK. But I was happy that this might be the time to get rid of RF and have someone come in that would actually run the company.
Walking away from a 20million debt hurts the economy, hurts the bank that has to eat it, hurts the insurance that has to cover it and in the long run this type of reckless business practice hurts everyone and only goes to help the **** poor shape this economy is in.
I don't know...hard to give due respect to someone that walks away from their accountability and responsibility, runs a business into the ground while trying to boost his own ego all the while leaving employees with out a paycheck. The respect I did hold for RF for his accomplishents just went out the window when he stole money from the bank and used BK as a cop-out to do so.
Standing on your past accomplishments does not void you of the need to be held accountable.
To quote Sir Josiah Stamp:
"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."
Fountain Powerboats to be left in the hands of the man that bankrupt it…I say to the employee’s… GOOD LUCK!
MikeyFIN
Competitor
Well I´ve been Following Reggies moves with Fountain like 10yrs back regarding economics and even I knew exactly what he was about to do...and no banker did ?
I mean come on...everybody would´ve done the same to clear the table for free.
catastrophe
Registered
Ratickle
Founding Member / Super Moderator
I alwasys enjoy Matt's writing. I don't always agree, but this one he's close on. But, so is Tank.......
If you look at Reggies business model as an investor, you would not participate. Back when he first went public his advertising expense was almost 6% of gross sales. At a time when almost every competitor was 2%. (Yes I can get the actuals). His business was consistently a 1% to 4% profit producer in the good years, and a consistent loser in the lean years. His advertising expenses were consistently 4% to 6% of sales. Good for those he advertised with, good for the teams and TV shows he sponsored, but bad for racing overall (I know, why? Different thread and it would be a thread you guys would kill each other, and me, on), and bad for investors.
So, besides the CatKiller debacle, Reggie either is not a very good businessman at running a business, or was not running the company himself and not hiring the correct people, (which is the same thing in my mind).
As your head of advertising, with a strict budget, I don't know - maybe.
He was a heck of a competitor when he was racing though....
If you look at Reggies business model as an investor, you would not participate. Back when he first went public his advertising expense was almost 6% of gross sales. At a time when almost every competitor was 2%. (Yes I can get the actuals). His business was consistently a 1% to 4% profit producer in the good years, and a consistent loser in the lean years. His advertising expenses were consistently 4% to 6% of sales. Good for those he advertised with, good for the teams and TV shows he sponsored, but bad for racing overall (I know, why? Different thread and it would be a thread you guys would kill each other, and me, on), and bad for investors.
So, besides the CatKiller debacle, Reggie either is not a very good businessman at running a business, or was not running the company himself and not hiring the correct people, (which is the same thing in my mind).
As your head of advertising, with a strict budget, I don't know - maybe.
He was a heck of a competitor when he was racing though....
MikeyFIN
Competitor
Well the Key word was 20 yrs...
Otherwise your correct...they guys responsible for the others BK´s didn´t continue..well actually did way back.
TEAMBAJA
Charter Member
Quote of the year! :cheers2:
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
Actually it does...... The other boat builders who run their businesses profitably and professionally without regard for self agrandizement. There are too many boat brands and manufacturers and Fountain is one of the excess producers at this point. There is not enough demand for all of the production capacity in the industry today, and , regardless of loyalties and egos, somebody(s) have to go. This is the sad truth, and this is what many are refusing to acknowledge. The salad days are gone....and they ain't coming back anytime soon. I am much more concerned that a Mercury Marine survives as the primary vendor to the market....then if any particular boat builders make it through to the other side.
The King is dead....long live the King.
T2x
Magicfloat
Charter Member
I rarely disagree with T2x,but I disagree on this.Anything negative in our industry hurts everyone involved, I have no love for Fountain boats or Reggie,but face it ya'll,Fountain and Baja are 2 of the biggest and best known brands in performance boating.Baja has been the #1 seller for years as far as # of boats sold,and Foumtain was up there too. If they go away,does that mean more sales for the remaining builders?I doubt it. But there will be those that think if these 2 top names are gone,maybe the entire industry is going down,so instead of buying a Formula,Sunsation or Cig,maybe I should buy a SeaRay and stay away from the failing performance boat segment. Negative publicity can only hurt all of us that make our living in the industry.The failure of Fountain and Baja may make a prospect for one of my Fastechs look at another type of boat,and I don't want that. You go,Reggie.I don't have to like you or your methods,but for the good of our industry,I personally wish you and your company well.Matt got it right on this.
MikeyFIN
Competitor
Well If Reggie constantly keeps on overfilling the market what does it do good for.
It´s better to have a waiting list for a producer of these luxury items just like a Ferrari than have them stacked on each other on the Showroom floor.
Remember the 60´s how Shelby got stuck with his 427 Cobras from 1966 for 3 yrs...
Ferrari didn´t have that problem...
It´s better to have a waiting list for a producer of these luxury items just like a Ferrari than have them stacked on each other on the Showroom floor.
Remember the 60´s how Shelby got stuck with his 427 Cobras from 1966 for 3 yrs...
Ferrari didn´t have that problem...
Similar threads
