Blog

All information shown below has been provided to Garage Composites from its dealer members and may not be updated. Please check with your OEM to ensure the below packages have not changed or for more information.

 

Progressive Insurance Northwest Sportshow Launches Virtual Show  3/25/2020 12:00:00 AM | Boat/Sportshows

https://www.nmma.org/press/article/23163

 

OEM Responses

 

Yamaha Watercraft - March 20th

Floorplan Interest and Fees Support - Yamaha will pay all Yamaha Financial Services floorplan interest and fees for the period of March 1, 2020 through April 30, 2020. This support will be reflected on the billing statement; no additional action required.

Curtailment Support - Yamaha will suspend all curtailment payments due through April 2020 billing periods. Dealers utilizing the Yamaha Financial Services and Safehold Risk inventory insurance program should continue to make payments as billed to ensure continuous coverage.

Dealer Retail Incentives: For the remainder of March, we will provide an additional dealer incentive of $500 on all WaveRunners / $2,000 on all Boats. This is in addition to all current national programs.

COOP Incentives: All Dealers 100% Coop Reimbursement: For all ads purchased from March 20th through March 31st, and running through April 30th, all dealers will qualify for 100% Co-op reimbursement.

Marketing: We are continuing to increase our retail marketing efforts as well as increasing our social media efforts to enhance your online traffic. 

 

Update on Yamaha Watercraft on March 21st

Temporary Change to Section 1.2 of Sales & Service Agreement

 

To assist in the goals of maintaining a safe work environment while selling Yamaha products and to the extent it is appropriate and allowed in your area, if a customer requests home delivery for a newly purchased product, Yamaha will temporarily allow the sales transaction to be completed remotely and for new Yamaha product to be delivered to the customer’s home. Accordingly, Yamaha will temporarily waive Section 1.2 of the Yamaha Sales and Service Agreement to support this effort. Pre-delivery inspection is still required and the PDI form must be completed just as if the transaction was happening at your dealership.

 

BRP Marine - March 24th     

Floor Plan Assistance: Effective immediately, we will be covering floor plans through September 1, 2020 by paying all interest for Alumacraft and Manitou boats currently on floor plan with TCF, Wells Fargo and Northpoint.

 

For Evinrude Dealers: 100% of all floorplan costs for new Evinrude orders placed from March 24, 2020 through April 30, 2020 will receive free flooring until September 1, 2020. Standard 180 day flooring support remains on new Alumacraft and Manitou orders

 

Increasing Co-Op Reimbursements: To support your marketing efforts during this period, we are funding Co-Op at 100% until June 30, 2020, which means $0 out-of-pocket costs for you.

 

Retail Support: We will continue to have closing tools that will help you maximize each retail opportunity through various promotions.

• Be sure to take advantage of current promotions and stock inventory available for immediate delivery on all brands - please reach out to your sales representative for a list of available inventory.

 

Marketing: We will continue measuring and monitoring the performance of all our marketing tactics moving forward and are prepared to adjust as needed to match today’s realities. 

• Websites and Social Media: We have modified the call to action of ‘visit a dealer’ to ‘contact a dealer’ on our websites, CRM and social media to adapt to this new reality.



Call Centers and Dealer Support: As always, your questions can be handled through our call center or sales representative.

 

Bennington - March 27th

TCF Cash Flow Relief Program:

We are pleased to let you know that today TCF announced they are deferring curtailment and interest payments.

· Any curtailment due in April, May or June will be deferred until the date the whole good is sold, end of term or September 2021, whichever is sooner.

· Interest will continue to accrue, but due dates will be pushed back 90 days. Interest due in April will now be due in July; May interest due in Aug; June interest due in Sept.

 

More information on their program may be found by reaching out to your sale representative.

Virtual Boat Tours Training and Consumer Outreach

We also want to announce that we are holding two webinars on Tuesday, March 31st and Wednesday, April 1st of next week announcing our virtual boat tours and private boat demo program we will be offering to consumers. During this webinar we will be conducting training on how to execute 3 virtual selling tools to get you started or to help polish your skills. We will be pushing virtual sales appointments via:

· Our website

· Emails to leads and owners

· Our social channels

To top it off, the first 250 consumers who participate in a virtual boat demo through our website will receive a $100 donation to the charity of their choice!

APRIL 15, 2020 update

Dear Valued Bennington Dealer Partner,

We are pleased to announce that we will be ramping up production beginning on Monday, April 20. The health and safety of our employees will continue to be our top priority and we are taking every measure to ensure this by following the WHO guidelines.

As always, we ask that you work with your sales representative on the priority of your new and existing boat orders. 

Nautique - April 3rd

Due to the impact of COVID-19, we are suspending production beginning Monday, April 13th. Our primary objective is to protect the health and safety of our team as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will continue to build and ship boats through Thursday, April 9th, and will be closed for our scheduled Good Friday holiday on April 10th. Our intention is to restart some operations on Monday, May 4th. We will reach out to all dealers who have boats in production that will complete before the suspension so we can arrange transportation.

This production change has an impact on our staffing needs, and most of our team members will be on furlough during this time, including your Nautique account manager. We will operate with a very condensed team to assist you and your dealership. We are committed to and will continue to provide service to your dealership and your customers. Warranty claims and service parts orders will be processed, Customer Care will continue to provide technical support, and boats that are completed in production will be shipped.