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Sunseeker Posturing to Trim

Discussion in 'Sunseeker Yacht' started by AffrayedKnot, Oct 21, 2014.

  1. AffrayedKnot

    AffrayedKnot Senior Member

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    BBC reported late Friday, (17, Oct), that Sunseeker is positioning to reduce its workforce by 300 heads. This news seems to have evaded further industry report, but certainly warrants discussion, if not debate.
    Link here:
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-29664951
  2. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I think two things influencing this. First, absentee and non-industry owners probably looked at the overhead and said it was just too much. No way I can know if they're right or wrong. Second, Sunseeker has concentrated in the range that doesn't have the greatest strength right now. Now they're moving up in size, but while larger boats require the manufacturing people, building one 120' boat vs. three 55' boats takes less administration and management.
  3. Fishtigua

    Fishtigua Senior Member

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  4. AffrayedKnot

    AffrayedKnot Senior Member

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    Full agree. Cash is readily available for Dalian Wanda, and boss Wang JianLin, for fiscally sound investments. Same can be said for Ferretti’s sovereign; Shandong Heavy. Yet Bertram has been permitted to extinguish.
  5. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    That's one of the reasons the owners have cash probably, that they make tough business decisions such as those. Now there might have been alternatives such as fixing the broken parts of the business but that probably required additional investment and they didn't want to pour good money after bad. Especially in the Ferretti purchase, they were purchasing a company that was really struggling. One problem was the amount of debt but I'm sure they also looked to remove unprofitable business segments.
  6. colintraveller

    colintraveller Senior Member

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    Not enough work to go around for all the staff yet there books are full ..
  7. Riverdance

    Riverdance Member

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    Anticipated shrinkage in the Euro market perhaps. Press is reporting the possibility of deflation going forward, even Germany.
  8. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    Once again it sounds like not a need for more profits, but a desire to get every last dime of profits possible. Has anyone considered the impact on the local economy when 300 jobs are taken away? How much loyalty will the locals feel for the company in the future? Will the tradesmen come back when they want to expand in the future? Does that even enter into the thinking process? Even more profits could probably be squeezed if they moved the entire operation to China or Malaysia. Of course Sunseeker's reputation will change, but short term profits will increase.
  9. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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  10. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Well, if Sunseeker went out of business because they weren't profitable and couldn't stay in business. What kind of impact would that have on the local market? A business has to turn a profit in order to pay it's bills and stay in business. Not all business decisions make the company or ceo happy. There are a lot of CEO's that do care about their workforce, and do have to make tough decisions at times. I know that even I, as a small business owner have been forced to make tough business decisions.
  11. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    There was nothing more painful in my career than moving manufacturing off shore and reducing the number of jobs in the U.S. But I didn't set the rules or structure the world economy and I couldn't change that. And, not only did I have an obligation to shareholders, I felt one to protect as many employees as I could. The choice wasn't maintain all in the US or move some off shore. The choice was either move some or cost all employees their jobs. We kept some US manufacturing, but only because we moved most of it.

    We also purchased companies that had three times as many executives and levels of management as we had. Others that had terribly inefficient manufacturing. These were companies that if nothing had been done would have gone out of business. We tried to build and save as many jobs as we could, we moved people into other positions in the company when we could, but we couldn't keep clearly unneeded positions.

    Now, what I do strongly dislike is the tendency of new CEO's to immediately make their big splash by reducing work force. That's headlining. That's taking the easy way out. And it's often counterproductive. But when reduction is part of a comprehensive plan and necessary then they have no choice.

    I don't know enough about Sunseeker to know if the reductions are necessary. I do know one thing about Sunseeker and Ferretti, since they are the two acquired by large Chinese investors. Changes needed to be made with both. They were on the market, they were sold, because they were not financially successful the way they were being operated. Whether that was just too much debt, too shallow pockets, too much overhead, plant inefficiencies, ineffective marketing, poor dealer network or channels of distribution, or product, I can't judge from the outside.

    How often do we read companies stating during an acquisition that "no changes are anticipated." I never said that. In fact, I always knew there would be changes, even if I hadn't yet figured out what they would be. But the goal in acquiring was to make the changes to make them more profitable.

    I hope the new owners of Sunseeker and Ferretti find a way to make the appropriate changes and adversely impact the fewest people possible, while improving things for most employees and the communities.
  12. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    We have different business philosophies. Mine's not very popular these days.
  13. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Might be popular, just not possible.