Merc Lays off 1700 Employees . . .

[Desert Whaler]

Interesting vid . . . . he mentions that Merc is now saying 'cash up front' for outboards to some boat builders. . . no credit.
Sounds like it's part of a larger re-structuring . . . but still not the best of news.
I guess this puts them at + or - 2000 layoffs
Sign of the times I guess . . .

 

[RiverDave]

Yeah things are slowing down across the board..

Honestly though when you look at inflation and the prices of things is anyone surprised?

 

[Havasu Rehab]

Yeah things are slowing down across the board..

Honestly though when you look at inflation and the prices of things is anyone surprised?

How is Havasu real estate holding up @RiverDave ?

 

[NicPaus]

How is Havasu real estate holding up @RiverDave ?

Great time to buy! Call Stacy with all inquiries.

 

[Doc]

Curious out of those 1700 how many were hired when covid hit and sales went through the roof? Lot's of companies that hired big during covid have laid off most of that workforce already and some due to the economy slowing down.

 

[Singleton]

This week, the company said it will shut down manufacturing for roughly six weeks between now and the end of the year “approximately one week at a time.”

“This will impact around 1,700 hourly employees,” Mercury Marine spokesperson Shelly Kuhn said via email. “This is taking place as a result of continued high interest rates and near-term reductions in boat production by Mercury’s boat builder partners.”

“These are not permanent layoffs, but days we are not manufacturing, which means the impacted employees are not working those days,” Lee Gordon, vice president of corporate communications, told the station. “It does impact the majority of our hourly population in Fond du Lac.”

 

[CLdrinker]

My company is looking at cutting 1800

 

[RiverDave]

How is Havasu real estate holding up @RiverDave ?

Honestly still very busy but I don’t see that lasting forever.. havasu has kinda turned into an enigma.

 

[hallett21]

My company is looking at cutting 1800

Weren’t they just hiring?

 

[CLdrinker]

Weren’t they just hiring?

lol yup.

 

[DWC]

Honestly still very busy but I don’t see that lasting forever.. havasu has kinda turned into an enigma.

Wonder which one has a bigger impact on Havasu pricing. Short term rentals or boomers reliving MTV Spring Break days? Short term rentals has made beach living unaffordable for most. Anywhere that people go for a vacation is off the charts right now. It’ll be interesting as cities back off STR permits. Dana Point is looking at it. Kinda hoping it helps affordability

 

[Done-it-again]

My company is looking at cutting 1800

If SCE, I’ve heard big changes and will be a different company in 9 months or so.

 

[CLdrinker]

If SCE, I’ve heard big changes and will be a different company in 9 months or so.

Yup big re org coming In October. Starting September they are making us come into office 2 days a week instead of 1.

I’m sure this time next year we will be back in office full time.
There is a big $$$ shortage. And sounds like CPUC is playing hard ball

 

[JFMFG]

It’s unfortunate we have reached the downturn for some companies. Hate to hear of anyone losing their jobs. People always say toys are first to go. This should be an indicator that the slow down and economic hardship is finally here for some. Auto load defaults, cc defaults, mortgage defaults, are all up across the board when you look into it. Election years seem to always be odd for business but seems as if most companies have been slow for 3-4 months now. I’d be curious as to the backlog for builders high end and mid range. Have people withdrawn from building losing deposits? Seems the market it very soft and alot of inventory sitting as far as boats, sandcars, sxs, rvs, and list goes on. Homes seem to still be selling my cousin just sold her house down the street in 3 weeks 10k over asking. Million dollar home. We are still fairly busy with work but I have started to stage ourself with what’s to come.

 

[Racey]

T

Honestly still very busy but I don’t see that lasting forever.. havasu has kinda turned into an enigma.

Small market with a huge demand of people looking to flee their over crowded rat race lives, retire early and relax, work from home with occasional office visits, or have a locked in vacation spot with the benefit of parking money into equity to hedge inflation

Covid woke a lot of people up to what it means to be free

 

[Sportin' Wood]

This week, the company said it will shut down manufacturing for roughly six weeks between now and the end of the year “approximately one week at a time.”

“This will impact around 1,700 hourly employees,” Mercury Marine spokesperson Shelly Kuhn said via email. “This is taking place as a result of continued high interest rates and near-term reductions in boat production by Mercury’s boat builder partners.”

“These are not permanent layoffs, but days we are not manufacturing, which means the impacted employees are not working those days,” Lee Gordon, vice president of corporate communications, told the station. “It does impact the majority of our hourly population in Fond du Lac.”

This seems an extreme manufacturing defensive strategy. I assume others levers were pulled leading up to this disguised as maintenance or 5S projects. You can see leading indicators start with overtime cuts, then reduction from 40 ours to 32. These big layoffs sometimes are second or third shift layoffs. Early retirements and trimming the herd of under-performers normally take place before this.

Shuttering a plant for 6 weeks seems really bad unless they are doing a major overhaul to a production line. Recreation is a volatile industry, Feast or Famine.

Being an hourly employee on manufacturing production line does not offer a lot of options to pivot. I don't see these employees contributing to growth in the luxury lifestyle marketplace. They have likely already been hit hard by inflation and rent increases. It's a pretty miserable place to be.

When I worked in the construction industry I enjoyed the slow downs, I kind of miss having the time to recharge batteries.

 

[Singleton]

This seems an extreme manufacturing defensive strategy. I assume others levers were pulled leading up to this disguised as maintenance or 5S projects. You can see leading indicators start with overtime cuts, then reduction from 40 ours to 32. These big layoffs sometimes are second or third shift layoffs. Early retirements and trimming the herd of under-performers normally take place before this.

Shuttering a plant for 6 weeks seems really bad unless they are doing a major overhaul to a production line. Recreation is a volatile industry, Feast or Famine.

Being an hourly employee on manufacturing production line does not offer a lot of options to pivot. I don't see these employees contributing to growth in the luxury lifestyle marketplace. They have likely already been hit hard by inflation and rent increases. It's a pretty miserable place to be.

When I worked in the construction industry I enjoyed the slow downs, I kind of miss having the time to recharge batteries.

100%.
Shutting down the line for 6 out of 16 weeks is not a good sign. Almost 40% of production is not a good thing.
I know Merc had FTE impacts in early June, but those were the finance, admin and engineers guys.
Not a good sign.

The population impacted today and already living paycheck to paycheck.

 

[JFMFG]

100%.
Shutting down the line for 6 out of 16 weeks is not a good sign. Almost 40% of production is not a good thing.
I know Merc had FTE impacts in early June, but those were the finance, admin and engineers guys.
Not a good sign.

The population impacted today and already living paycheck to paycheck.

So seems like production builders inventory is sitting. Custom boats still busy due to the backlog.

 

[Singleton]

So seems like production builders inventory is sitting. Custom boats still busy due to the backlog.

Custom boats might be waiting longer for engine packages and that small % does not carry the industry

 

[2Driver]

WAIT, the boat business is cyclical?

 

[28Eliminator]

Yup big re org coming In October. Starting September they are making us come into office 2 days a week instead of 1.

I’m sure this time next year we will be back in office full time.
There is a big $$$ shortage. And sounds like CPUC is playing hard ball

Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not sure what your roll is with SCE. But….. SCE is the absolutely the worst company to deal with as far as construction goes in the state of California. Anything they do would have to be an improvement.

 

[NicPaus]

Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not sure what your roll is with SCE. But….. SCE is the absolutely the worst company to deal with as far as construction goes in the state of California. Anything they do would have to be an improvement.

Depends on the employee. I recently got final and needed the new panel charged. Both planners I had assigned to my job were worthless. The supervisor on the other hand was great. The planner replied in text he had no excuse just failed to do his job. 6 weeks to get power. $3,350 in lost rent due to his laziness.

Malich from the Southbay division. Cut his ass and production would not change but revenue will go up.

 

[sdpm]

We placed our order for 130 engines, 240 Gearcases in October. We were told in February to expect delays with no delivery dates given. As of last week we have received 44 engines and 68 Gearcases. Not good.
Yamaha is way behind as well. Very difficult to get parts.

 

[JFMFG]

Custom boats might be waiting longer for engine packages and that small % does not carry the industry

No doubt just a small drop in the bucket

 

[CLdrinker]

Depends on the employee. I recently got final and needed the new panel charged. Both planners I had assigned to my job were worthless. The supervisor on the other hand was great. The planner replied in text he had no excuse just failed to do his job. 6 weeks to get power. $3,350 in lost rent due to his laziness.

Malich from the Southbay division. Cut his ass and production would not change but revenue will go up.

You guys aren’t wrong. Some guys are completely useless no doubt. But you wouldn’t believe how overloaded some of us are and we will fail no matter how hard we work. And here is the thing if you successfully complete your mountain of work. You are graciously rewarded with more work.

Example. My team is down 5 people. Our work amount did not change and our due dates did not change. Keep in mind a full team is 22 people.

Not making excuses because I see allot of piss poor work ethic. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows on our side either.

BTW I couldn’t even get my own families solar inspection so they could connect to the grid.

 

[NicPaus]

The Supervisor responded to texts within 5 minutes and answered every call. 2 weeks no response or answer. Within 5 minutes of texting or calling the Supervisor I would get the planner responding with a excuse. Got the power hooked up and he called 2 weeks later to tell me it was on. Within 2 days of him doing the paperwork required the field crew was on site connecting the panel.

 

[CLdrinker]

The Supervisor responded to texts within 5 minutes and answered every call. 2 weeks no response or answer. Within 5 minutes of texting or calling the Supervisor I would get the planner responding with an excuse. Got the power hooked up and he called 2 weeks later to tell me it was on. Within 2 days of him doing the paperwork required the field crew was on site connecting the panel.

Yup I’m the guy that you can actually get ahold of. Sounds easy. But it’s a monumental task be available to customers and clients.

I have many many sleepless nights because I’m stressing about the next days workload or the amount of people I need to give responses too.