Initially dubious of industry’s response, arlene sloan baxter provides a behind the scene’s look at how a new global statistics system for boat sales gained the confidence of leading builders.

I must confess to some initial scepticism when ICOMIA (the International Council of Marine Industry Associations) first approached me a year ago to undertake a feasibility study to assess boatbuilder interest in a voluntary statistics scheme to compile global sales figures.

I’m not naturally a pessimist, so I’ll chalk up my early doubts to pragmatism — resulting from years of involvement in the efforts to improve statistics for the boating industry while I was overseeing the Market Statistics department for the US boating market as vice president of Industry Programs at the NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association), as a former member and chairman of the ICOMIA Statistics Committee, and now as a market research consultant to the industry.

The leisure marine industry is notorious for its poor statistics and the hurdles to compiling better data ­— particularly on an international basis — have been numerous. Nonetheless, the project proceeded and we started knocking on boatbuilders’ doors. Due to practicalities, the ICOMIA Sales Statistics Feasibility Study initially focused on key volume producers. If they were on board, their volumes alone would assure a certain critical mass — and legitimacy.

The ICOMIA programme proposed to compile sales figures submitted directly by boatbuilders into a centralised database, with the aggregated results — consisting of type of boat, country of sale, number of units and wholesale value — to be made available online only to participating companies.

My initial visits took me to Brussels to meet with Brunswick’s European Group — a division of the world’s most prolific boatbuilder — to Norway to talk with a group of 10 boatbuilders collectively representing a high number of small boats, on to Italy to meet with its two most prominent builders — the Ferretti Group and Azimut-Benetti — and next to England to speak with Fairline Boats and Princess Yachts, rounding out the mid-range to larger end of the motorboat market.

After the first six meetings, we were six out of six and adjusting the odds of the project’s success upward. The initial group of manufacturers became early adopters and committed to shaping the development of the programme as part of a Boatbuilders Steering Group. Admittedly, we did eventually run into pockets of resistance from some companies that remain on the fence about the study’s ability to compile quality statistics and wary of revealing anything that may ‘give away’ a hard-won competitive advantage.

But the overwhelming conclusion of the ICOMIA Feasibility Study, which included consultations with manufacturers from 12 countries, was that boatbuilders are acutely aware of the need for quality market data and strongly support the need to work together to overcome some of the traditional obstacles to generating better industry numbers.

So what has turned the tide?
• First and foremost, the ICOMIA programme — developed together with participating manufacturers — answers boatbuilders’ concerns while overcoming the shortcomings of previous efforts. Namely, it offers a new methodology — with checks and independent audits — to provide meaningful statistics on a timely basis. A fundamental concept of the new reporting system is third-party management by a contractor, independent of ICOMIA and its member national marine industry associations, to ensure that individual manufacturers’ figures will remain confidential and unidentifiable in the aggregated results.
• The influx of senior managers into the boating industry from other industries has shifted attitudes — particularly notable is an infusion of executives from the automotive industry where sophisticated sales figures and market share data is available on an almost daily basis.
• The heightened interest of private-equity firms wanting to invest in the industry and used to having multiple metrics available to assess a company’s and an industry’s prospects has raised the stakes on producing numbers.
• The increasingly global nature of the boating business demands real information on an international scope rather than relying on ‘gut’ instincts. If you spend enough time and effort, it is true that you can piece together a fairly accurate picture of the marketplace and relative position of key competitors. But what cost and effort are you putting into assessing the market and is the information precise enough? Should your next model introduction be an open or hardtop sportcruiser, or would sales benefit more from another flybridge? You may know demand for boats over 15m (50ft) is growing, but is it enough to warrant building a new plant that can accommodate 24m (80ft) models? Is it time to find a distributor in Russia?

Paolo Vitelli, CEO of Azimut-Benetti, has gone on record about the difficulties of accurately forecasting the market, noting for instance in a recent EB interview that his company experienced capacity constraints last year when demand exceeded expectations.Vitelli expanded on the problem of developing accurate industry forecasts during his keynote address at METS 2006. “Alas, such estimates are based on knowledge and experience, but they do not rely upon a solid quantitative ground,” he stated. “Reliable figures are today what we in our industry miss most,” Vitelli summed up. “ICOMIA is committed to developing a pertinent and credible system of statistics and I’d like to ask for everybody’s help and support.”

The ICOMIA Boat Sales Statistics Programme has progressed significantly since the conclusion of the Feasibility Study last June. The on-line statistics system has been developed and is currently being tested by boatbuilders who will soon begin uploading model and sales data for first quarter 2007 reporting. In its first year, the statistics programme will focus on quarterly sales statistics for series and semi-custom produced rigid hull powerboats and motoryachts.

With more than 80 boatbuilders from Europe, the US, Australia and the Middle East signed on for the programme, the believers are closing the gap on the sceptics.

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