MB... why aren't you in Minnesota?!?!?

Seriously, we have someone carrying supreme, centurion and gekko here, but no one is representing MB?? Are they not capable of supporting a larger dealer network?

I know a few years back, a dealer brought one in as a demo, not sure why they didn't officially become a dealer.

I just got excited about it after browsing through some of the MB videos on youtube and was thinking back to how much I enjoyed trying out the b52 a few years back.

I think you answered your own question. My friend sales MB and the boats are not massed produced, so setting up a large network of dealers may take awhile. Mark Brendel still builds them one at a time.

There is a place in Kalamazoo, Mi that carries them. Great dealer!

Originally Posted by laker1234

i think you answered your own question. My friend sales mb and the boats are not massed produced, so setting up a large network of dealers may take awhile. Mark brendel still builds them one at a time.

mike

Historically the smaller west coast dealers have not done well here. Supreme only came after being bought by Centurion with their dealer network. Without that doubt you would see them here. Gekko is here because they are being manufactured here at the Larson plant in Albert Lea. Last I knew the dealer in Alex carrying them had yet to sell a boat in almost a year. So thats not a good example. Minus a few Minnesota people on here the vast majority of people here would have no clue what an MB was. No name recognition would equal no sales. Its happened to most of the smaller known brands here. Tige, Centurion, Moomba, Supra, and others have all had problems keeping dealers over the last 10-15 years. Only MC, CC and Malibu have dealers that have had the line for over 5-7 years.

I know there is a MB dealer in the Chicago area.. be curious to know how their sales are for MB and how long they have been a dealer....

I am pretty sure The Edge www.edgeski.com out of Portage, MI was at the Chicago Boat Show representing MB.

Good question. I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with dealers all over the country through travels for Boat Bling events & meetings and always find it interesting as to who is successful with what brand. From my limited experience traveling around Minneapolis, Willmar, and Alexandria last year it seemed the successful wake boat dealers in the region cater to a very high end clientele. I'm a big MB fan and feel it's an awesome brand with great value for the features you get but IMO you need experience with one to want it. Making some assumptions here, but the average middle aged exec in Minneapolis working 70 hours a week looking to buy a boat for weekend family cruising and tubing around the summer house would probably stick with something from the big 3 out of familiarity.

Maybe if one of the established dealers brought on MB they could tap into an open market? Then the question becomes how much margin they make on a MB vs Malibu, CC, etc? I don't pretend to know the #'s but I suspect you would need to do more volume with the less expensive brand to make the same $ and with a seasonal product, limited showroom and storage space, etc that's a big risk.

Would love to see MB enter that market but there are some challenges. Maybe they should hire me to open new territories

-zack@boatbling.net