Brunswick CEO David Foulkes very optimistic
on 2021 Investors-day Update (1)
In a virtual format presentation Brunswick CEO David Foulkes gave an update on the last 15 months and the progress they made in their “Next Wave” strategic plan presented in February 2020. Herewith a summary of the main points.
Brunswick’s NEXT WAVE is already in flight and entails new products and new technologies to enhance the customers experience in a marine lifestyle. Some of these concepts are new and in this article of this event we only deal with the PROPULSION section as presented by President of Mercury Marine: Chris Drees.
The purpose statement of Brunswick remains the same:
INNOVATION + INSPIRATION ON THE WATER
The Foundation of Brunswick is to maintain the World’s Leading Marine Propulsion Business with 1 out of every second USA recreational boat powered by Mercury. The present is estimated to be market approximately 10 to 12 million boats The Brunswick portfolio includes 3 to 4 of the best known brands. Presently we run the worlds largest marine parts, accessories and systems business that accounts for 50% of Brunswick's earnings.
The 2022 strategic goals are tracking ahead in the 1st Q of 2021 based on our internal data, New Boat Retail is up 38% Year on Year. Our pipeline is at – 41%. Q1 marine retail credit applications is up by 44% compared with last year and traffic on our website was up by 66%. Our sales on the first in water Palm Beach Boat Show was up by 223% compared with 2019. Presently Mercury has a 45% US market share.
Mercury Marine has invested heavily into technology with as moto: ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electrified and Shared) & Digital Transformation Capabilities. Talent and Partnership. As part of this investment Brunswick Marine Group migrated 90% of their applications to the cloud. In 2021 more than 700 Brunswick employees work directly to commercialize ACES.
Smart Products: an exclusive partnership with Carnegie Robotics to develop and bring to market an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and autonomy products in the recreational marine sector. This is in addition to Brunswick’s relationship with Sea Machines Robotics. Later in 2021 the 1st ADAS will be introduced.
Connectivity: To date more that 100.000 people have downloaded Brunswick and Mercury connectivity applications. To support the ACES and Digital Transformation strategy we have hired 40 specialists in Electrification and 35 new specialists in digital marketing and data analytics. Additionally we have enhanced our cooperation with the Technology Lab at the University of Illinois for our further development of iJet lab.
Future: We acquired the Freedom Boat Club which is the worlds largest marine shared-access and integrated platform to further obtain Marine leadership. This will be the platform to assist us further into the Marine electrification transformation.
Will be continued ..
.end
