Brunswick boat, engine sales up in third quarter

Brunswick Corp. reported higher sales of boats, engines and parts and accessories in the third quarter, leading to overall revenue growth of 13 percent over 2013.

Total net sales were $932.1 million for the quarter, up from $824.4 million a year ago. Net earnings came in at $61 million, up from $57.2 million in 2013.

The Mercury Marine Group, which includes the parts and accessories businesses, again led the way for the marine business. The group had net sales of $566.9 million, up 11 percent. U.S. sales were up 9 percent, with sales up 35 percent in Europe and 2 percent in the rest of the world. As has been the case for the last several years, strong results for the outboard and parts and accessories segments were partially offset by continuing declines in sterndrive sales.

Brunswick is also continuing to pursue more acquisition opportunities, especially in the parts and accessories business, such as this year’s additions of Whale and Bell RPG, said Brunswick CEO Dusty McCoy.

The boat segment continues to struggle, although losses were less than a year ago. Operating loss for the quarter was $7 million on earnings of $234.6 million, compared with a loss of $16.9 million on earnings of $191.7 million in 2013. Boat segment revenue was up 31 percent in the U.S. and 36 percent in Europe, with a 2 percent decline for the rest of the world.

The boat segment is benefiting from higher price points on boats this year, said CFO Bill Metzger, pointing out that while sales are up 22 percent in dollars, they’re only up 7 percent in units.

McCoy said the company is continuing improved profitability in boats and solid growth from the engines segment, although an unusually cold and wet spring in Canada has continued to slow sales there. On the other hand, the U.S. market has rebounded better from the long winter.

“U.S. sales [for the year] are right where we thought they would be – not sure if that means they’re all made up,” McCoy said. “In Canada, we clearly did not get that made up there, so my hope is that there is pent up demand we can get in 2015.”

An “aggressive pace” of new products introductions should help to meet some of that demand based on reaction so far to products being rolled out, McCoy said.

Download the full earnings report at brunswick.com/investors/.

 

 

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