News broke earlier this week of Malibu Boat’s acquisition of Pursuit Boats and the company’s strategies going forward. Malibu CEO Jack Springer said the $100 million purchase of Pursuit was “very important” to Malibu. “It establishes a leadership position for Malibu in one of the fastest-growing segments in the marine industry. It also makes us a key player in the outboard segment. Between Pursuit and Cobalt, its makes Malibu Boats a large purchaser of outboard engines.”
While the decision of whether to grow Pursuit’s product line in length or even types of boats is still being evaluated, it’s the Malibu side of things that has those in the pontoon industry most intrigued.
“That’s the logical one that we’re not in today,” says Springer. “We’ve seen a little slowing, but it remains a real strong market. We’ll continue to watch it for the next six months.” Springer says that recent acquisitions by other companies have muddied the market for now. “You have a few players who have, in my opinion, vastly overpaid for the acquisitions,” he says.
Malibu has no plans to create its own brands, as it did with Axis during the height of the downturn. “We already have the Cobalt brand, which is probably the most prominent boat brand in the world today,” he says. “If you tried to start a new brand in that segment, you would lose a lot of luster. You just don’t have the same dynamics as you do in towboats, with different levels and price points. With Pursuit, in the long term there could be a scale that makes sense.”
Beyond entering another category, acquiring Pursuit gives Malibu expertise in building larger boats. “They’re a very strong engineering company, which gives us an asset we didn’t necessarily have,” says Springer. “We plan to transfer those skills across our companies. This acquisition was valuable in many ways.”
