Ranger Buys Triton

[Central Bassman]

I never thought this would happen but it's a done deal!!! WOW!!!

Once-Fierce Competitors Now Under Single Roof

Friday, July 30, 2010

For the second time this year, a major bass-boat brand changed ownership.

In January, the Ranger, Stratos and Champion brands went to Platinum Equity, which acquired them through the Genmar bankruptcy. Platinum then formed Fishing Holdings LLC to oversee those bass-boat brands, and Fishing Holdings quite quickly moved top-selling Champion hulls into the Stratos line to meet diminished demand and better focus marketing.

Yesterday, Fishing Holdings went a step further and purchased the Triton Boats brand from Brunswick Corp., and thus gained control of the two largest-volume boat brands in the business (Ranger and Triton). With Stratos thrown into the mix, Platinum now controls somewhere near half of all bass-boat hulls in the U.S.

Interestingly, the three major brands now controlled by Platinum were founded by only two individuals. Forrest Wood founded Ranger and many of his family members are still present within the brand's senior management. Earl Bentz founded Stratos, which he later sold to OMC, and Triton, which he later sold to Brunswick.

Bentz is still the face of the Triton brand and will continue, along with much of his management team, to perform similar duties under the new ownership from their offices in Tennessee.

Production Specifics

Flippin, Ark. and the surrounding area was already one of the two bass-boat capitals in the U.S. Ranger was founded and is still headquartered in Flippin. Champion was founded in nearby Mountain Home but was later moved. Bass Cat was founded in Mountain Home and still operates there, while Legend Boats operates out of Midway, Ark.

Much as the populace of say Cleveland or Buffalo or Detroit knows how to paint steel or work a stamping machine, folks around Flippin and Mountain Home know how to sculpt fiberglass.

"It's a culture," said Fishing Holdings representative Bart Schad, who oversees marketing for some of the company's brands. "I really do think the Flippin facility is the best in the world, and this community is where multiple generations of families grew up building boats."

A consequence of the sale, however, will be the shuttering of Triton fiberglass production near the other bass-boat capital of the U.S. – the area around Nashville, Tenn. Triton production will move to Flippin, and Brunswick will move Lund fiberglass production to Vonore, Tenn.

Trophy boats will still be built at Brunswick's Ashland City, Tenn. plant through this year (where Tritons were most recently built), but the future of that plant and its skilled workforce is certainly in jeopardy.

Stratos recently moved its production to Flippin, which means that the small Arkansas town will soon be building close to half of the bass boats sold in the U.S.

That's certainly welcome news for local workers who've been furloughed during the recession. The Flippin plant hasn't operated anywhere near capacity for some time.

Consolidation

Similar to how the tackle side of the fishing industry consolidated heavily over the past decade and a half, the bass-boat industry has morphed from a wide array of independent builders to the present handful of centralized conglomerates.

Prior to this year, Genmar and Brunswick held diverse brand portfolios, alongside Yamaha's ownership of Skeeter and G3, plus Bass Pro Shops' ownership of Tracker Marine and its ProCraft, Tracker and Nitro brands.

Brunswick still retains significant brand holdings, but it exited the high-end bass-boat market with the sale of Triton.

The result of the consolidation leaves very few independent boat builders, and in the case of Triton and Ranger, it unifies two former, fierce competitors under a single roof.

Bass Cat now remains the largest family-owned, independent boat manufacturer, while startups Legend and Phoenix fight to gain marketshare. Gambler, Bullet and other niche manufactures remain alive as well.

Photo: BassFan

The Flippin workforce represents multiple generations reared in the tradition of fiberglass boat-building.

Rick Pierce, who now heads Bass Cat and is the son of founder Ron, has long resisted offers to join the consolidation. And he sees the Triton sale as a sound statement of how far the bass-boat market has fallen the past few years in terms of volume.

"I think it leaves us some opportunity," he told BassFan shortly after the Triton sale was announced. "But I also think it shows the position the market's in – it proves how much lower the volumes are. Volumes of all bass boats have fallen in this economy – not just for high-end, but for all true fiberglass bass boats. They have a plant in Flippin that's capable of building somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 to 200 boats a week and they're going to build all four brands in there (including the Stratos/Champion hulls). They were all built in three different facilities before.

"If you go back not more than 10 years ago, they were all built in four facilities," Pierce added. "So you've consolidated four facilities over the course of the last 9 years into one facility. I'm tickled to death for Flippin – they just employed a bunch of people and that's a good thing. But when you look at what's happened over the course of things, Champion was once in Mountain Home and left a hole when they left. Stratos and Triton were in Tennessee, and those two facilities were huge – we're talking 300,000 square feet with those two plants. I think it's wonderful news for Flippin, Ark., but I think it's terrible news for Ashland City, Tenn."

The results of consolidation always take time to mature, but the marriage of Triton and Ranger will certainly have ramifications on the sponsor market, the media-sales landscape, the dealer network and Platinum's relationship with motor manufacturers.

Sponsorships

Triton and Ranger together represent a strong majority of all angler sponsorships and tournament underwriting in the sport today.

Traditionally, anglers who fished FLW Outdoors preferred to run a Ranger in order to take advantage of lucrative Ranger Cup contingency prizes. Ranger's still the sole boat sponsor of FLW Outdoors, and entry priority is often given to Ranger owners.

Triton traditionally invested heavily in sponsorship of BASS and was the league's sole boat sponsor for many years. Although Triton recently scaled back its support of BASS tour-level offerings – which opened the door for BASS sponsors Skeeter and Nitro – it's still heavily involved in all levels of BASS competition, including the licensed Weekend Series operated by ABA. And Triton offers its own contingency prizes under the Triton Gold program.

There were of course crossovers – Ranger in particular liked to sponsor BASS pros like Denny Brauer, Tommy Biffle and others as a way to harness star power and reach the BASS audience. But the industry waits to see whether that parallel will continue – Ranger with FLW and Triton with BASS.

Schad told BassFan: "I don't know that I could honestly predict where that (sponsorship) ball lands. As much as the boat industry has been evolving – we've seen all these changes happen in the last few months – we also see different things going on with the tournament world, which continues to evolve too. I can say this: Ranger has had a long history with BASS for 35-plus years. The most recent times – the last 13 or 15 years – Ranger's been with FLW.

"FLW's been a great partner of ours and we expect they will continue to be," Schad added. "But I think those types of decisions will be handled at a brand level. We know our brands have to differentiate themselves from the competition, but they also have to differentiate themselves from each other. Sometimes that means certain organizations are going to be a better fit with one brand than another. From the Ranger side, we're thrilled with the relationship and we're in a multiyear agreement with FLW."

Ranger's relationship with FLW has changed over the past year, however, due to Ranger's change of ownership. As part of the Genmar group, Ranger was controlled by Irwin Jacobs, who still owns and controls FLW Outdoors. Thus Ranger effectively transformed from being a lateral partner of FLW Outdoors to a customer/client of FLW Outdoors – a distinction worth noting.

Another distinction worth noting is that Ranger originally ended its close involvement with BASS under the direction of Jacobs, who pulled his sponsorship of BASS at the turn of the last century after the World Championship Fishing (WCF) experiment that involved boat racing. In the years that followed, some industry insiders felt Jacobs' move was more about building FLW Outdoors to compete with BASS that it was about a moral opposition to WCF.

Thus, with Jacobs no longer in control of the Ranger brand, it would surprise no one to see Ranger increase its participation with BASS. Although as Schad alluded, there are heavy rumors that ESPN will sell BASS within the coming days or weeks, which would preclude any early speculation on Ranger's future involvement with BASS.

The Ranger/Triton marriage also means that the majority of sponsored pros and semi-pros will now cash checks and sign boat titles from Platinum Equity.

Fishing Holdings has already moved several high-profile pros from the shuttered Champion brand into Stratos – namely Skeet Reese and Mike McClelland. Both are still running Champion hulls, but under the Stratos Champion Elite Series name. They join longtime Stratos pro Larry Nixon.

Photo: BassFan

Ranger, plus Stratos and now Triton will all be manufactured in Flippin, Ark. where Ranger was born and where Forrest Wood still has a reserved parking spot.

The Ranger and Triton pro contracts would perceivably carry through the remainder of this year, but there will almost certainly be an evaluation of how to "differentiate" each brand, as Schad described. That could mean anything from a shifting of pros between Ranger and Triton, to moving pros from either or both brands to Stratos, or to trimming staffs outright in order to save money and avoid duplication.

There's another factor at play as well – the motor brand of choice for pros, semi-pros and customers at large.

Power Choice?

There was a trend, arguably started by OMC, to consolidate boat and motor brands together. OMC owned Stratos, Javelin and Evinrude/Johnson. Jacobs acquired Stratos/Javelin in the OMC bankruptcy, while Evinrude went to BRP.

Brunswick, parent company of Mercury Marine, went on a boat-buying binge several years ago and purchased Triton, Lund, Lowe, Crestliner and several other recreational brands.

Yamaha currently owns Skeeter and G3.

The logic is simple: A motor company can guarantee itself transoms if it owns a boat brand.

That's why black motors are almost always seen on Tritons and blue motors on Skeeters.

Jacobs, when he controlled Ranger, hung Mercury engines on his boats but frequently issued ill words about Brunswick Corp. and its business practices. Despite the vitriol, a strength of the Ranger brand has long been a customer's ability to select from the breadth of power options.

Brunswick's announcement of the Triton sale made no specific mention of any agreement to provide exclusive power to Tritons moving forward. The announcement did state: "Brunswick's Mercury Marine unit will continue supplying propulsion systems to Triton and Fishing Holdings' other brands."

Several within the industry have already wondered aloud whether there is in fact an agreement in place to incentivize Mercury power on Tritons, or Fishing Holdings brands as a whole. In other words, will Mercury and Ranger/Stratos be allied more closely with Jacobs no longer in control of the brands?

BassFan asked Yamaha for its reaction to the Triton sale – specifically, whether the sale opens new opportunities for Yamaha to power Tritons, especially in regard to the company's new SHO high-performance four-strokes.

Yamaha Marine Group president Ben Speciale told BassFan: "As a supplier to many boat companies and a member of the marine community, Yamaha was pleased to see Platinum Equity acquire Ranger Boats. The marine industry needs Ranger to remain healthy, and Yamaha's proud to support the brand and its dealers. The just-announced Platinum Equity purchase of Triton Boats may offer similar benefits for Triton, which is also a strong brand. Yamaha looks forward to the opportunity to provide reliable and dependable four-stroke outboard power to all of Platinum's brands, and we wish Platinum well with its carefully considered acquisition."

Evinrude representatives were traveling and could not be reached in time for publication of this article.

Certainly, the Triton brand and its reputed 17% marketshare could be a boon for Yamaha and its SHOs and Evinrude and its E-Tecs. But according to Schad, Triton might still continue its strong association with Mercury.

"I think there'll be more opportunity in the future to see other brands in there," Schad said. "Obviously, as part of the arrangement, we'll continue to favor Mercury as we have there on the Triton brand. In the past being Brunswick (owned), they were 100% Mercury, (but) there will certainly be opportunity for other brands. At the same time, they've long aligned themselves together. Prior to (Brunswick's acquisition of Triton) they were a big Mercury house. I think their customer base lines up there as well. There'll be option opportunities, but I think a great selling point for Ranger and Stratos has been the ability for our customers to pick and choose from different engine manufacturers."

Which would seem to point to Schad's earlier notion that all the Fishing Holdings brands must differentiate themselves from each other. Ranger as a high-end performance and heritage brand with full power options, Stratos as a price-point brand with full power options, and Triton as a high-end performance Bentz brand with a Mercury association could provide sufficient differentiation.

Still, Fishing Holdings is now tasked with marketing three bass-boat brands – two of which were once fierce competitors – to a highly educated fishing public with deep consumer loyalties.

"I think all the brands will have a place in the market," Schad noted. "Of course I'm partial, but I'd say Stratos is really a bigger player in the market than most give it credit for. It certainly does meet value points in the market, but it's also known for performance. Triton's a solid brand known for performance. And Ranger I think has really stood for quality and being an authentic brand.

"I think there'll be some competition in the market – there really has to be – but we'll continue to differentiate the products. And I honestly feel there are different boat buyers out there – if there weren't, this whole thing wouldn't make sense – and it's tough for one brand to service every buyer out there. Certainly the lines will blur at times. But I think it'll easier from that standpoint – the different types of buyers – to differentiate and position the brands and follow through with that."

[Deitz Dittrich]

I dont get it.. how does a company that was just bankrupt afford to buy another company?.. And how does this help either company? I'm lost. And if I was one of those companies that Ranger owed money to, I would be a wee bit upset. Maybe I am all wrong on this.

[Central Bassman]

Fishing Holdings LLC AKA Platinum bought Ranger when then went bankrupt. So they have money, Brunswick was the current owner of Triton boats before the sale to FH LLC. I think it will be interesting to see how all the marketing get handled. Triton was the second biggest bass boat company (value sold) in the US right behind Ranger. Now they will be made under the same roof. Maybe this will bring the cost of bass boats down

How this help the company, They own the two biggest bass boat company in the US. Might come back to hurt them in the long run depending on how they make and sell the triton boat brand. It goes back to the old saying in business "if you can't beat them, buy them"

[TR21HP]

I doubt, very much that this buy will lower boat prices. Most likely the opposite will occur and the prices will stay the same or increase as they will have major operating expenses to cover. Supposedly Earl Benz is coming over in the move and will be the head of Triton still. Strange days indeed.

[Larson15]

Ranger did not buy Triton. Platinum Equity bought Triton. They are the same group that bought Ranger and Stratos from bankrupt Genmar. Earl Bentz will still be in control and the relationship with mercury will still continue.

[JohnMickish]

I dont get it.. how does a company that was just bankrupt afford to buy another company?.. And how does this help either company? I'm lost. And if I was one of those companies that Ranger owed money to, I would be a wee bit upset. Maybe I am all wrong on this.

Platinum Equity was not bankrupt, Ranger was not bankrupt, Genmar was bankrupt and no longer owns anything.

I can only see this as good to the sport, both bass and the multi species gang.

[Superduty]

All I know is Denny Hecker is definitely bankrupt! LOL

[cbrooks]

It seems that one company(platinum equity) has the monoploy on bass boats. I would think that competition works best for the consumer. I hope these boats don't lose there quality.

[bassNspear]

It seems that one company(platinum equity) has the monoploy on bass boats. I would think that competition works best for the consumer. I hope these boats don't lose there quality.

great point. your going to see things change within there company. there going to have to change things around in some of there bass boats to help each other out