Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/264625
March 2014 | Boating Industry | 41 www.BoatingIndustry.com /// Market Trends /// to have a boat that looks different than their next-door neighbor's, which there is a defi- nite market need for that, this is one of the options without going crazy with a $100,000 pontoon boat." With its other pontoon brands, Nautic makes it simple with "good, better, best" respectively covering its Sweetwater, Aqua Patio and Sanpan. Even within its Sweetwa- ter line the company sees three distinct trim levels that follow a similar ascending pattern. As pontoons, outboard deck boats and aluminum fishing boats are all concurrently showing signs of strength in the marine mar- ket, Nautic is ideally positioned to capitalize on the market's current trends. Though its sterndrive fiberglass division struggles with the rest of the category, the company feels some of its fiberglass custom- ers have migrated to other divisions. Those trends, combined with the trajectory of the Baby Boom generation, have Nautic tooling up for 10 to 20 years of sales growth. "Pontoon boats and deck boats will enjoy growth for probably 10 to 15, maybe 20 years, because of the fact that there is such a huge pop- ulation in the Baby Boom generation where this is just the perfect boat for where they're at in their life," Tadd said. "That said, through the recession, because these were areas where you had some early growth coming out of the recession, these types of products have also received massive amounts of creativity, innovation and have become much more mainstream than they ever were before, which has at- tracted younger buyers." Another factor helping boat builders in the category is the lower cost of development and experimentation compared with fiberglass designs. This fact of life has enabled manufacturers to innovate more than in the past, with quicker turnarounds and without making the types of invest- ments that are required in other categories of the marine market. "You can come up with a new level of furniture or a different bend to your rails or different color schemes," Tadd said. "So through the reces- sion I think you saw a rapid innovation in the pontoon business that you didn't see in other parts of the industry that now fiberglass boat manufac- turers, us included, are playing catch-up to pontoon boats. It's just shifted. All of a sudden pontoon boats became cool." That cool factor has gone beyond consumers to include dealerships that, in the past, wouldn't consider carrying pontoons in their store. Within just the last 5 or 6 years, Nautic has seen dealers that previously "wouldn't be caught dead stocking pontoon boats" now raving that pon- toons are their most mainstream, popular tyeps of boats in stock. The company has its eyes on another segment, coastal packages of pontoons that appeal to fishermen and others interested in such settings — something that wouldn't have been possible without powertrain ad- vancements and performance-enhancing features like triple tubes. When asked if the pontoon market was currently in a bubble — des- tined to burst — Tadd said he feels the market and his company's invest- ments are justified due to many different factors boosting the segment. "I think the market has just changed, he said. "And so will the market change again? Absolutely, but for now I think the fact that pontoon boats are cool and mainstream, that's going to last for a very long time." Parti Kraft's new product line is inspired by the colors, furniture designs and materials of high-end home patios. P34x41-BI14MAR-MarketTrends-new.indd 41 2/7/14 10:43 AM