Bass Cat's Pierce Talks Market, Pro Staff, More

The past 2 years have been tumultuous, some would say torturous, for American bass-boat builders. One major builder (Genmar) was dissolved and auctioned off in a bankruptcy. Then the two largest competitors (Ranger and Triton) merged. Through it all, volume remained a shadow of what it once was.

The news isn't all bad, of course. American manufacturers are still building glass boats – lots of them. But each has had to adjust.

Bass Cat, founded four decades ago by Ron and Jan Pierce, has weathered its share of storms – the Arab oil embargo, sky-high lending rates, multiple recessions and the 2008-09 tempest. But the company still stands strong, now with son Rick Pierce at the helm.

BassFan sat down to talk with Pierce to ask him about the immediate past, present and future of Bass Cat and glass bass boats as a whole. That conversation is summarized in the Q&A that follows.

BassFan: After all that's happened in the market the past few years, how would you characterize your outlook moving forward into 2011?

Pierce: We feel very fortunate to have lost very little production from 2009 to 2010 – from the new "normal" as we call it. I think the future going forward is solid. We set a record for the month of July – it was a 4-year record. November and December were up as well. So we see sales going quite well and we think we're going to have a good spring.

Would you say the bass-boat market today is much smaller than it was in the past?

There's no doubt the bass-boat market's much smaller, and it's regressed every year to a level now that we haven't seen in our lifetimes.

Is that because more folks are opting for pre-owned boats? If so, has that driven up used-boat values?

There's definitely a market for the used boats and pre-owned. Those values are up in some markets and have definitely returned more to the dealer side. Individuals are having a little more difficult time than dealers in selling used product. It all depends upon the individual, but we think the used market is definitely there, but it's running out of used boats, so I think you're seeing some appreciation in that market. And in that used market, Bass Cat's warranty is the only true lifetime transferable warranty out there.

How about the engine side of things? Do you think Brunswick's sale of Triton will help or hurt Mercury?

I think Mercury made some very aggressive moves to strengthen its position in the bass-boat business. I think they're in a good position and their partnerships and alliances have improved their position.

Are your customers looking primarily for four-strokes now, or are two-strokes still the preference?

I think the Yamaha SHO came out of the box very solid and we think there are two viable four-stroke options, although there's still a lot of the wait-and-see approach to the four-stroke market. People are still counting on the 2-stoke dependability. There's no doubt the two-stroke manufacturers have worked very hard on the quality of two-stroke engines.

Bass Cat won several consecutive JD Power awards for customer satisfaction, but we haven't seen a bass-boat study from JD Power in a while. Why?

There was no study this year, and I think the market's regressed to the point where they can't do it. They haven't done it in 2 years and as of right now, there won't be a study in 2011.

The ups-and downs last year – the Genmar bankruptcy and the Ranger-Triton merger – did that help Bass Cat in any way?

I think we benefit from being part of a niche and a dependable option in today's market. You're either part of a corporate entity in our competition, or part of an entity that's been through a restructuring and leveraged at auction. I can say that people have definitely looked at our product more.

Triton manufacturing relocated from Tennessee to Flippin, Ark. You're right down the road from Flippin in Mountain Home. What percentage of American bass-boats are now produced in that small geographic area?

Going back over the last 10 to 12 years, if you take the best 4-year span and look at that data to estimate today's numbers, then approximately 70% are built in the Mountain Home area.

There's been some shuffling of league sponsors this year. Do you plan to step back into league sponsorship with B.A.S.S. or FLW Outdoors?

We're going to be very dependent on our Elite (Series) staff for the exposure we get, and we're going to stay pretty much tight with what we're doing until the economy recovers some more. Obviously, we have the same challenges everyone does with this economy like it is, so we're not interested in opening that up (league sponsorship) at this time.

We have regular Bass Cat family meetings, even more now with the economy, and we have a lot of confidence in that group of Jerry McKinnis, Don Logan and Jim Copeland. In fact, we think they're the saviors of our industry. However, we also know we still have a very difficult economy in front of us.

You single out B.A.S.S. Are there maybe hard feeling toward FLW given its close connection with Genmar, a former competitor?

There's no bitterness at all. It comes down to membership. I don't know the exact number, but it's roughly a 40,000 number (for FLW), and the B.A.S.S. membership is roughly a 530,000 number. It's about numbers. And then there's the exclusivity of our competitors' brands with FLW. You're looking at an exclusive market of competitors' brands in an organization that's 8% the size of a larger player.

Do you foresee expanding your pro staff this year?

We've had conversations with people but we're very comfortable with everyone we have. We really anticipated having more transients this year – more who would leave or merge with other companies – but we didn't have that. Obviously, given the financial position of our country, it's a very difficult time for all companies. So we seem pretty much set with our Elite staff going forward, and we've got Andy Morgan on the FLW side. We don't see anyone else coming aboard at this time.

To finish up, what's Bass Cat's strategy moving forward?

We haven't sat on our hands in this economy. We've moved out with new product – we had the new Jaguar in 2009, and in 2010 we finished the Eyra – and we've brought a lot of product to the table. We're working on a new 17 right now, and we're pretty excited about that and what it'll do for our dealers. We've continued to try to develop new products. There are three new hulls on current models – one's just cosmetic, the other two are not. And this was all during a down economy.

Our focus right now is on product – new consoles, new seats, raw material, the Nexus gauge line, which is both NMEA 2000 and SmartCraft compliant. As far as Bass Cat's concerned, what's slowed down is the day-to-day advertising. We've tried to focus on product.

Notable

> Although Pierce rarely mentions it, he's an accomplished bass angler. He and his father Ron have fished a total of 212 B.A.S.S. events. Rick's best finish was a 6th at the 1994 Santee Cooper Bassmaster Invitational.