How many people have been caught in a close down of a company ??

Discussion in 'All Things Boats & Boating' started by tunnels, Feb 1, 2013.

  1. tunnels

    tunnels Previous Member

    I am in the last dieing throws of a company closure yet again.
    I will add its not the first and am very sure it wont be the last .
    I have lived and survived four such closures so far over the years .
    Apart from the world econamy on the edge of collapse yet again before it even got time to get back on it knees from the last one .
    Each company closed for differant reasons so after being in a place for a few months you get that feeling how long will it be before this place closes .
    In this case i fore saw this happening just a couple of months after i had started work here .
    You only have to look around and start adding all the pluses (if there are any ) and minuses and seeing what the people are like in the ranks and how much they really know and understand about the jobs they are doing and there enthusiasum or lack of and its a forgone concussion its going no where .
    putting things in true prospective In this case it really all starts at the very top! owners/managers and there complete ignorance and lack of knowledge and interest in boats and boating and the industry they are trying to be a part of.
    This company i have been working in for the last two and a bit years really was doomed from the day it was set up and they bought a collection of old derelect moulds that had been sitting in the bushs behind some factory some where in the outbacks .
    First they were told they were the compamies production moulds !! a few days after i arrived it was blatantly obviouse they were not there current production moulds that the ex company had been using but some older moulds made during the development of there current models .why had no one from the company with a little bit of nouce been and seen what they were buying and taking a long hard look and asking questions .

    The first company i was caught in was the biggest busyest place i ever worked in my life , as a glass shop manager and churning out boats one after the other it seemed it would go on forever and that was the sheild they had put around them selves !! they thought that they were invincable and untouchable !! oh dear how wrong they were . No new models coming on line for a long long time , there was some development that had no direction to it and was just changing there already exsisting boats . the managers sitting in offices were throwing money into useless and meaningless whims and a absolute waste !!, THEN the merger and take over of a group of one big company and some smaller companies that were all going to be placed under one big roof .
    Before the ink was dried on documents it had started crumbling and fell apart and was disolved and in tatters . trying to put smaller companies all in one place there is natural resentment from staff at each of these places one of the small companies put quality and pride of workmanship top of there list and it showed in the end product , the other compeditor company was make ans push out the door and get on with the next . so was never going to work even in a 100 years .

    Then i went to another company small but differant .
    It was being run by the Designer of a range of tunnel boats !!
    Designers that think they are managers and had a bottomless purse was not a good combination .
    The company owner was again only interested in boats and fishing and had given the Designer a free hand so to speak .
    So this company was like a headless chicken !! developing and making new things one after the other and never really ever actually finishing anything ! Was all money going out and very little coming in. Plugs being made and moulds not ready !! there were partly finished projects every where .
    Then one morning i went to work to find the office cleared out and the place wide open .
    So its had imploded so to speak .After some panick sorting by the parent company accountant we managed to keep the place open and operating ! A while later i got to finish some projects with the help of the apprentace boy and two boats went out and they got paid for .
    Then the doors closed !
    A few weeks later the producyion part repoened with a new manager and because i was the only one with knowledge of how the boats were made and went together we started making the production boat the company had and should have been concentrating on .
    All this is now under a differant company name and being run by the top gun golden boy manager of the year person with his face plastered on the cover of some magazine . Put in prospective he was just A motor mouth and not much else to speak of between his ears .
    After a short time of boats being made and going to dealers and being used for demo , nothing was being sold ,
    Oops number 3 company closed !!
    So any one else lived and died and been reborn to ride the waves of success again ??:eek:
     
  2. Petros
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Petros Senior Member

    I think if you are after steady employment you need to get out of the boat building industry....
     
  3. tunnels

    tunnels Previous Member

    Never !! Boats, boating and making boats is my life !! amongst other things of course .
    My two older sons are into fishing and boats .
    My fater was in the coast guard so i guess its sort of rubbed off . :confused::idea::D:p
     
  4. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    I'm not sure that's true Petros, but I would have Tunnels consider divestiture to some degree. I divide my time up with design, new construction, repairs, rebuilds, restorations, survey and insurance work. I don't limit myself to any single thing, because one segment of the industry may fall flat, while an other shows growth. Tunnels seems to have the multiple skills necessary to pull this type of "adjustment" off.

    The pleasure boating industry is entirely discretionary spending dependent. These types of industries are the first to starve in economically depressed times, so divestment is necessary, if you expect to survive. There are lots of ways to do this.
     
  5. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    messabout Senior Member

    There is another post on this page that sounds pretty much like your description of the chinese boatbuilding industry. The OP is using the screen name Chinaboy. At least he appears to be trying to figure out what he is doing with a startup company there.
     
  6. DCockey
    Joined: Oct 2009
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    Location: Midcoast Maine

    DCockey Senior Member

    I've never worked in the industry but have some good friends who have.

    Several decades ago one was working in an area with a number of custom and low volume builders. One Wednesday several of the most experienced shop employes from a nearby, well known builder of custom boats showed up and inquired if the outfit my friend worked for was hiring. So my friend wasn't surprised two days later on Friday to hear that the well known builder wasn't able to pay their employees and had closed. Apparently the well known builder under-estimated the cost of the previous boat they had built so they finished it using the deposit on the next boat they were to build.

    Another friend told me of working in a small shop with precarious finances. On Friday mornings the shop's owner and his wife would meet in the office with the door shut. Then the wife would leave and reportedly visit several of the local banks. Eventually the employees would be given their paychecks. The employees would then immediately stop what they were doing, go to the bank the checks were drawn on and cash their paychecks. A few years later the shop was out of business. My friend then went into house building and built boats as a hobby.
     
  7. michael pierzga
    Joined: Dec 2008
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    Boatbuilders are formed around a core of three individuals. Boat Builder, Marketing Man and Wealthy Sugar Daddy. If any member of this Troika fails to perform the whole pyramid collapses.
     
  8. afteryou
    Joined: May 2012
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    afteryou Junior Member

    You know I had good story I was going to post here. It was even a little funny just so long as it wasn’t you that went ### up. :) But after thinking about it I think my world up here is just to small to tell the story the way I was going to. So to shorten it up the only boat building shop I ever worked for went belly up like greased lightning. Kinda the chicken with no head thing. I could read the writing on the wall pretty much day one. besides that people kept asking me “so you know how to do fiberglass?” I had more side work than work so I ran with it. I bailed with the first boat. I spent a whole lotta time learning how not to refinish molds before that boat went out the door though. :D
     
  9. tunnels

    tunnels Previous Member

    I often wonder how some people can be so stupid and get involved with owning and running (or trying to ) a company and have not the faintest idea of what the hell they are doing . oh sure like all things looks simple and is when you understand it 99% but just working blindly and completely in the dark ?? . Good luck to you and thanks for the insight to your exsperiances . !
     
  10. tunnels

    tunnels Previous Member

    The boat building part of the pyrimid really dosent seem to apply in a lot of cases Marketing is just another name for a know it all that never been past the garden gate . i love experts !! Have worked with a few and they always en up tripping over the knowledge barrell they carry which is usually completely empty .But i read this in a book and this is how it should be done !! heard that a few times as well .
    I also like the workshop forman that sits in his office feet on the desk and a couple of crownies there talking loud and laughing at pointless jokes . Hes always the first out the door when the office girl walks by and has the insight to be standing at the right place when the boss arrives .
    Sorry have no time for those people and have left them holding the candle on more than a couple of occassions and simply dropped my tools on the floor and walked out !!.
    But the reverse has happened as well where have worked with some really nice guys and managers and after 35 years we are still good friends and always get a xmas card or two !!.:p At my age not to many are still alive !! Just about all the guys my age that i worked with are in a better place some where beyond the stars !!.
     
  11. Landlubber
    Joined: Jun 2007
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    Landlubber Senior Member

    Tunnels,

    Yep my time in China ended the same, the yard I was working in went belly up cos it had an office staff of 10 and about three workers that knew what the pointy end of a boat was called. The office spent the money on dinners and entertaining themselves, the workers did Ok, but most were very lazy and would hide and sleep, the three workers that were good, were well worth feeding, but they simply eventually ran out of money.

    Many Chinese yards start up cos they think it is very fashionable to "own" boat company.

    I have seen 3 yards go under in my time there.

    One yard built one boat from a flopped mould, when I asked them what was there deemed market, they simply told me everyone would want one of their boats...yeah, why, it was a sort of outdated bubblle boat that had terrible accomodation layout, twin sterndrives shoved into a single area hole, crap finish and detailing, and they wonder why they go belly up!
     
  12. afteryou
    Joined: May 2012
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    Location: Southeast Alaska

    afteryou Junior Member

    Hey Tunnels, you notice the glass guys seem to use more smilies than the engineers, why is that I wonder? :D:D
     
  13. tunnels

    tunnels Previous Member

    We have a better slant on life and a better sense of humour ! Plus smilies are Cute !!!:mad:
     
  14. leslielp
    Joined: Dec 2012
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    Location: South Africa

    leslielp Junior Member

    Well put my friend!! I think it happens all over the world!! We as builders can only make what we have been given. Build in a time frame that has been set and hope that what you made in the alotted time will suffice!! I am sure you have also voiced your opinion many times only to be shot down because "they" know more than you.
    Anyway, my break is over, let me continue working on this marvelous Saturday!!
     

  15. rwatson
    Joined: Aug 2007
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    Location: Tasmania,Australia

    rwatson Senior Member

    “so you know how to do fiberglass?”

    a classic phrase. Says so much about the asker.

    Pars comments on diversifying sound good.

    As well as job types, you can think of vertical opportunities with your skills.

    Fibreglass not only in boats , but lots of other products. I would think about agriculture, mining, domestic etc.

    In China's congested housing, I have always thought a quality shower cubicle with a large foot bath and most important, a seat ( for us old people )
     
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