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www.BoatingIndustry.com www.BoatingIndustry.com 12 | Boating Industry | April 2014 BY JONATHAN SWEET w hile not immune to the boating market crash, the Chaparral and Robalo boat brands have weathered the downturn better than many. Jim Lane, president at Chaparral since 1977, has seen his share of ups and downs in the boating market, but says he is con- fident about the future of the company's brands. With its H 2 O line focusing on the entry-level market and refreshed products across the brands, the company's publicly traded parent Marine Products Corp. re- ported strong sales growth in 2013. Cou- pled with more new products, including the Vortex jet boat, on the way, Lane says the brands are poised for continued growth. Boating Industry: We've been through Miami and several of the other boat shows now. What's the sentiment from buyers out there? LANE: Obviously, every market is entirely different, but if I were to summarize what I've seen attending boat shows and what our regional managers have seen attend- ing the boat shows, I guess I come away with a feeling that it's mostly upbeat, but there are a lot of customers that are re- maining cautious. We're seeing a trend where a customer will come to the boat show completely prepared, come asking the right questions and [the dealer] will say, "Are you ready to make your down payment on this boat?" and he'll say, "Can I stop by the dealership after the show is over?" We're seeing a lot more of that than in the past. I think there are a few less deals being written at the shows, but the follow-up is very strong. The boat shows are still a great format, but the urgency to sign on the bottom line has lessened a little bit. Boating Industry: You recently reported your year-end results, which showed a 12.8 percent increase in sales in 2013. What's behind that? LANE: We like to say it's two words: new sells. We have continued to spend a tremendous amount of money in our re- search and development department and have consistently come out with exciting new product. This year we came out with quite a few new boats. We came out with new boats in our H 2 O line, we came out with new boats in our SSX line and in Robalo we came out with a brand new series of bay boats, called the Caymans. I think we've been pretty on-the-mark in developing customer interest in those boats. Obviously, we have a great distribu- tion network because without our dealers, nothing would sell. Boating Industry: What specifically seems to be moving the needle with buyers? LANE: Let's take the H 2 O line. People were looking for a good, clean boat with a good price. We decided that we would go back and develop an entry-level line of boats, but still use the Chaparral DNA and create a product that was fairly priced. We got our dealer network behind it and gener- ated some good numbers in the H 2 Os. In our SSi line, we thought that particu- lar line would be improved by changing the interiors out to some new exciting colors and changing our entire dash network, and I think that was extremely important as well. Boating Industry: One of the items the company called out in its earnings call was a higher average price point. Is that reflecting a shift to larger models or fewer of the H 2 Os in 2013? LANE: If you look at what we did in our with Jim Lane, president, Chaparral & Robalo P12x13-BI14APR-Q&A.indd 12 3/13/14 4:09 PM