Why can't Tige get good representation in Minnesota??

[Timmy!]

This is what I really like about Tony/Tige, they monitor the forum and respond to the customers!

Great seeing you at the Denver Boat Show Tony!

[Jason B]

Hey Guys,

You are right, that MN market has been tuff for Tige. If you guys in MN have any suggestions on dealers in your area give me a call.

I think it would behoove Tige to give me 6 new, fully loaded boats, a fleet of models (ladies) and some gas money to cruise around MN with.
It's not a job I WANT, but, if it is the best for Tige, then I'll make a sacrifice. lol

j/k of course. Starting with GETTING a dealer sounds like a logical step. Maybe give them some cosignment boats or something just to build a presence for a few years????? Not sure what's possible, but it seems like helping out a dealer with a great reputation to get your foot in the door would be a win/win in the long term.

[harv]

We had a dealer in Alexandria, MN for awhile. The first year he sold all of his inventory, we had a great weather summer. Last summer the weather was absolutely CRAPPY and the dealer did not sell a single Tige'.

Nice weather = boat sales?

Now the dealer has no Tige's in the showroom. Our summer program is in the need of a new boat... sadly Tige' isn't in running.

[SPBFAN]

There is a lot involved in being a TIGE Dealer. Tige demands high standards for sure and the dealer has to make a huge financial commitment. In this market it is very very hard to make that commitment and to sustain an inventory each year that is not sell. To boot the prices of the boats are going up and for good reason. TIGE is building better and better boats. They are building what the customers want. New technology things are being added and TIGE still has to pay the bills to stay in business.

This is just a super super tough market to be starting a dealership. I am certain it is very hard for TIGE to find good dealers right now to fill voids in open territories

[Jason B]

Then it's time to start being creative! You can't just excuse away no growth becaue of a bad economy. Sure, it's easy, and to some degree it holds true, but it's a cop-out. To grow market share in MN (shouldn't be hard since the bar is set so low now)they have to have a dealer. If they need to lower their buy-in, flooring numbers....whatever it is that is holding back a dealer--then that's what they need to do. Work with a dealer to come to some agreeable terms. Hell, open a factory store. Something, anything is better than shrugging your shoulders and saying, "hm, bad economy." IMHO, now would be a great time to pounce. Other OEMs are hurting and, from the sounds of Mr. Pidgeon's posts, Tige is weathering this rough patch fairly well.
It seems to me that if Tige RREEAALLLYY wanted a dealer in MN they could work something out.

[SPBFAN]

Then it's time to start being creative! You can't just excuse away no growth becaue of a bad economy. Sure, it's easy, and to some degree it holds true, but it's a cop-out. To grow market share in MN (shouldn't be hard since the bar is set so low now)they have to have a dealer. If they need to lower their buy-in, flooring numbers....whatever it is that is holding back a dealer--then that's what they need to do. Work with a dealer to come to some agreeable terms. Hell, open a factory store. Something, anything is better than shrugging your shoulders and saying, "hm, bad economy." IMHO, now would be a great time to pounce. Other OEMs are hurting and, from the sounds of Mr. Pidgeon's posts, Tige is weathering this rough patch fairly well.
It seems to me that if Tige RREEAALLLYY wanted a dealer in MN they could work something out.

X2

[corey]

The whole factory store gig is being tried out with Tracker boats here in MN. They bought up most of the Crystal Pierz storefronts but they are not keeping the boat lines, they will be Tracker stores only from what I have heard. Old management is gone too!

[Will5150]

How about Minnesota Inboard? They are exclusive with Malibu right now, but they know their stuff and service a ton of inboards. Not sure how Tige would feel about that - but they're a great dealer.

The problem with this area is there's not a lot of knowledge about V-drives and Inboards outside of the established Mastercraft and 'Bu guys- Crystal Pierze has Century- but that's not their focus. I totally agree there needs to be someone who's dedicated to the line, knows service and the boats history, stengths, etc. How would Tige handle setting up a NEW dealer in the area?

[knelems]

The biggest obstacle for any dealer these days is FLOORPLAN,or the lack of floorplan.Unless you have local banks with a line of credit or GE flooring you can't buy any new product!GE has a surcharge just for doing business with them and their ridiculous interest rates on non currents is limiting dealers with stocking excessive amounts of inventory this year,or taking on any new lines.Some inboard companies like Mastercraft give the dealer an extra 4% if you don't carry a competing inboard line.Some of the other larger inboard companies may threaten the dealer that they will cancel them if they take on another comparable brand.The inboard market is small and competitive,some established dealers may be very sucessful in the sterndrive or pontoon market,they think they can take on an inboard line and they will sell themselves without a lot of work and knowledge of their product and their competitors.Meanwhile your strong BU,Mastercaft,CC or whatever competitive brand in your area is attacking you because they know how to fight for their market share.I had a long chat with our old GE rep last week and GE is expecting the marine industry to start to turn this summer and be stronger for 2011.I think Tige and some of the other smaller companies will fare better this year than some of the larger companies,especially the two larger ones with all the debt.Factory stores don't usually work out,a company like Tracker might get away with it if they don't have any competing independent dealers in their area,Tracker may have a ton of non-currents and repos they are trying to move.We are a marine dealer of 44 years and have carried the Tige line since 2001.

[corey]

It will be interesting to see how the factory store works out. In the long run I don't think it will work any better than a private dealership as the factory stores are going to have the same overhead as a traditional dealer and less leverage to secure better disounts or terms on the boats. If Tracker is flooring the boats I would think it would actually increase their floor rates as boats wouldnt move off of Trackers financing until they were sold instead of when they were completed. I actually think the factory stores will put Tracker at a bit of a competitive disadvantage but that remains to be seen.

All that said I think its a moot point. Tige' needs a passionate a dealer thats passionate about the brand and has the ability to provide long term parts and service. Most of the big lenders like GE and Textron are not options for new dealers but there are still some options for getting a floorplan.

[AdaminMN]

I just happened to see two Tige's sitting at a dealership in Elk River today on my way to a customer site. I stoped in there on my way back to the office and asked about the Tige's out front, an '09 20V, and an '09 22Ve. They told me they singed a deal w/ Tige' about a month ago and picked up the line. The name of the dealer is National Repo Depot Powersports and Marine in Elk River, MN.

http://nationalrepodepot.com/

[Jason B]

^^^^ they couldn't come up with a more classy or less cheesy name than "national repo depot"??? Seriously?

[MoneyPity]

Then it's time to start being creative! You can't just excuse away no growth becaue of a bad economy. Sure, it's easy, and to some degree it holds true, but it's a cop-out. To grow market share in MN (shouldn't be hard since the bar is set so low now)they have to have a dealer. If they need to lower their buy-in, flooring numbers....whatever it is that is holding back a dealer--then that's what they need to do. Work with a dealer to come to some agreeable terms. Hell, open a factory store. Something, anything is better than shrugging your shoulders and saying, "hm, bad economy." IMHO, now would be a great time to pounce. Other OEMs are hurting and, from the sounds of Mr. Pidgeon's posts, Tige is weathering this rough patch fairly well.
It seems to me that if Tige RREEAALLLYY wanted a dealer in MN they could work something out.

x whatever number we are at

[SPBFAN]

If TIGE does not get creative and figure it out they will be in just as bad of shape as the other OEM's I fear.

My thought is that they would look at where they came from and go back to those roots. In a bad economy that is a great way to start. Work with those guys that are willing to take on what ever part of the business they can and grow the product line. Heck if they (a dealer) starts at the bottom they can only go up from there. If some else comes along during the process and is willing to do more business with TIGE then it is know and mutual agreements are made that dealers rights may change hands at TIGE's discretion.

If they the proposed dealer can take on service in an area and gradually build the business then work with them and do that TIGE may be surprised. Before you know it they will be selling boats along with the service. If they can take on boats and sell them then do that. Heck leverage the BRAND (TIGE) not the products everyone knows the products are good. TIGE is the brand and if you leverage your brand you can weather the storms of a bad Economies.

Just my quick 2 cents worth with out giving all my thoughts about it as I do have more details to this but it is late and I really don't care to post all of them. I just think that if TIGE leverages the brand they will see growth and if they go back to the grass roots operations they will accelerate growth. I know for a fact they are the best boats out there.

[thoekstr]

In specific reference to the MN question, I have personally found it to be extremely annoying to visit or talk to the dealers who have attempted to take on various watersports makes over the past decade in this market. There have been dealers who are used to selling I/O's, pontoons, and fishing boats that have tried to sell Tige, Centurion, Gekko, Moomba, etc. Every time I dealt with a salesperson at one of those dealers, I found myself to be far more knowledgeable about the inboard and V-drive products than they were, which didn't exaclty inspire me to buy from them. I think that the business model of MN Inboard and Midwest M/C as watersports-specific dealers fits better with the fairly unique niche of products that the inboard manufacturers offer. It would be great to see some new competition break into this market!