Marine dealer sentiment regarding market conditions dropped to 25 in June, the lowest rating ever in the Pulse Report survey and a sharp drop from the 40 rating in May.
This story by Reagan Haynes originally appeared in Trade Only Today.
Also, the three- to five-year outlook dropped from 39 to 36 among the 75 dealers that respond to the Pulse Report survey, which is conducted by Baird and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas.
More retailers reported declines than growth in June, with 59 percent saying trends had worsened from May and 25 percent saying they’d improved. In the used boat market, trends also turned negative, with 48 percent reporting a decline against 30 percent reporting growth.
Dealers grappled with poor weather through much of June, prompting the lowest weather metric in survey history.
New-boat inventory comfort worsened sequentially, likely connected with weaker retail. Far more dealers – 73 percent – reported that inventory is “too high”; only 6 percent said it was too low.
