Two months after hiring an investment banker to help look for additional capital, Fountain Powerboat Industries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week.
Fountain Powerboat makes sport boats and fishing boats and maintains a 65-acre facility along the Pamlico River in Beaufort County.
Though the company said in July 2008 that it was planning to add 250 jobs at that plant, the economic downturn has reversed those plans.
In November, the company laid off 70 workers. And in February, it reported a million-dollar loss and a 61.6 percent decline in sales for its second quarter, which ended on Dec. 31, 2008.
At that time, president and CEO Reginald Fountain Jr. said, "The global economic downturn, finance industry collapse and stock market crash had significant detrimental effect on marine markets during the quarter. Retail financing for boats tightened and floor plan financing for boat dealers became difficult. With dealers reluctant to replenish their inventories and retail sales stymied, orders for off season production became scarce."
Retail reporter Sue Stock came to the N&O in 2004 and has been covering retail and shopping in the Triangle since then. She is the author of the popular
Comments
Fountain Powerboat files for bankruptcy
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 16:40 — carypawnIt is my guess the The Lord Byrun Unger was not buying Reggies boats fast enough for them to keep up with the way he ( Lord Byrun ) could sell the same Fountain with 3 motors to three different people at one time. All they needed was Cuz Bone himself and their problems would be few. I'm sorry to see Reggie and his Company go, this just adds to the long list of folks from North Carolina now facing unemployment. It's very sad day for all of us not just the rich that bought the High End Wood Play - Dog Watch Style Boats buts all the familys effected from the layoffs are the ones that I really feel sorry for. I pray that he can turn the business around and the market will change.
I'm shocked
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 15:31 — avg_joeAs if we didn't see this bankruptcy coming a mile away.
Taxes on the rich have not changed since Obama took office, so all of you conservative knuckleheads need to develop another half-baked theory about why these guys went under.
Could it simply be that overpriced luxury products like these don't sell well in any economic downturn, no less the biggest downturn ever since the great depression?
Anyways, everyone knows who to blame for this downturn: George W. Bush. It turns out "W" really was as stupid as he appeared in public.
Somehow cutting taxes, doubling the budget deficit, and giving big companies anything and everything they asked for wasn't the answer to all of this country's problems.
Bush is to this decade as Carter was to the 70's. As short as memories are in this country, it's going to be quite some time before people forget what George W. Bush did to this country.
Is Chapter 11 reorganization
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 15:20 — annie15Is Chapter 11 reorganization or liquidation?
business reorg
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 19:45 — robdarichbusiness reorg
Remember the luxury tax of
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 13:23 — kedavraRemember the luxury tax of the early 90's? All those rich people buying boats and planes? So they slapped a tax on them to raise a lot of new tax revenue? Revenue declined, over 100,000 direct jobs were lost, and over 100 companies went out of business - and we ceded a lot to overseas companies. How many rich people lost their jobs? George Mitchell (Dem Maine) was majority leader then and pushed in through. A year later with his tail between his legs given the tax had hobbled the boatmaking industry, which had been strong in Maine, he quietly killed it. Did the same for the small airplane business, too. Most of the traditional American marine brands died due to that idiocy.
Hope and change is upon us!
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 12:25 — PhantomLordHope and change is upon us! Praise be The Messiah!
And besides, powerboats are just luxury toys for the filthy, evil, hated rich, who probably stole and cheated their way to fortune. Serves them right!