Genmar warranties still good - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Tracy Carrell says the letter came after boat manufacturer on Monday filed for Chapter 11bankruptcty protection. Genmar owns 15 different brands of which means dealers everywhereware impacted. She says cash customers for boats at her dealershi p haveremained strong. But trouble financingg in the current economy means others have been forced tohold off. “The boating businessd has been affected a lot like cars she says. The petition to reorganize its debts was filedin U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis — where the company is headquartered — along with more than 20 related subsidiaries.
Genmatr has between 100 and 199 It lists its assets in the rageof $10 million to $50 millionm and its liabilities between $100 million and $500 according to court documents. The largest unsecurex creditorsare Maslon, Edelman, Borman, Brand, a Minneapolis-basedx law firm which is owed $186,700. Merchantg & Gould, a law firm in is owed $155,800. The only secured creditors are and FifthjThird Bank, according to a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Genmar said it has received commitmeng fora debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing proposalo from both banks.
In a Genmar Chairman, CEO and largestg shareholder Irwin Jacobs said sales ofthe company’x fishing boats, luxury yachts and othe r products started to decline in but worsened in recent months. The company’s sales in fiscalp 2009, which ends in June, are likely to be about $460 million, off by more than 50 percent fromfiscalp 2008. “If someone would have said to me as recentl y as even one month ago that Genmar woulfd someday be filing forChapte 11, I would have said it was not even a remot e possibility,” Jacobs said. Genmae had been making some strategy changes inrecenr months, announcing plans to launch a line of less-expensivew aluminum boats.
A spinoff company, Greenville, Pa.-basee VEC Technology, and other Jacobs-related companies aren’t included in the VEC is now in the businesx of making giant bladesfor energy-generating windmills. Law firm Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis, is representing Genmar in thebankruptcyu case.