During an employee luncheon taking place at the company office on October 1, Hargrave CEO Mike Joyce predicted that the Fort Lauderdale based yacht manufacturer, whose fiscal year starting October 1st, is on a good way to have a record breaking year in the upcoming twelve month period. In his speech Joyce explained that his outlook for Hargrave, the boating industry in general, as well as the US economy, were based on several key factors.
Hargrave 125 RPH superyacht
“The history of the boating business has repeatedly shown that the only way out of a nose dive recession is to have hot new product available for the consumer” said Joyce, adding that Hargrave will offer five all new models for sale this season. The product roll out began with a new 125′ raised pilothouse (an example is motor yacht Gigi II) and a 114′ cockpit yacht that have been unloaded in Palm Beach earlier this month. Joyce said that the 114′ superyacht, running on a high performance Jack Sarin hull, will offer clients a significant increase in speed and also showcase some new construction technology for the firm.
“We will have more new yachts for sale this year than at any time in our history and what that means is we are is now playing on a level field with competitors like Westport, Hatteras, and Lazzara who have always offered new models and immediate delivery.”
“In times of uncertainly customers don’t want to wait for anything and frankly I don’t blame them. I just bought a new 2013 Lincoln today and I wouldn’t even wait 60 days to build one so they pulled a car with my color and equipment choices from another dealer” he added.
Joyce was quick to emphasize that his company was not abandoning their custom boat building roots. “When clients walk from boat to boat at our display at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in a few weeks they will see and understand that our boats are all different – different exterior designs, different interiors, different hulls shapes, different equipment packages. Our competitive advantage comes from the fact that we are a small family run company and can afford to make the kind of difficult changes that many sophisticated buyers appreciate.”
114' Hargrave Raised Pilothouse Cockpit Yacht
Joyce said the boating industry itself has done a great job of reinventing itself over the past three years citing the Caterpillar engine company as his prime example. “I built this company around Cat power, and we live or die based on their success. Cat has a new engine series that will be unveiled on the boat show circuit later this year that is ideally suited for our size range, and will immediately trigger a wave of new Hargrave designs once the engine series is certified and approved for sale” he said. “Our company has historically pulled over 50% of our new orders from existing Hargrave owners and these new Cat engines will have the kind of “wow factor” that will give our owners a great reason to reorder in the coming year.”
“A gift from Uncle Bennie” is what Joyce called the new Q.E. 3 recently announced by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. “My only major concern when we made the decision to go all in on re-launching the Hargrave Brand two years ago has been the ongoing mortgage crisis, which continued to lurk in the background of the US economy like a ticking time bomb. The mortgage crisis is the 500 lb. canary in the back row of our country and my fear was that the problem might begin to unwind just before the elections. Mr. Bernanke has indicated that’s not going to happen while he is in charge of the Federal Reserve, and I think the breathing room Q.E. 3 will provide in the short run will help the entire boating industry get or more solid footing before the mortgage problem is eventually resolved.”
