Dec 17, 2019

Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) has announced the formation of its Advanced Systems Group and appointed Brett Dibkey President – Advanced Systems Group reporting to Brunswick CEO David Foulkes.  The new structure will take effect on January 1, 2020.  

The Advanced Systems Group consists of the 11 leading Power Products brands from the acquisition completed in August of 2018 in addition to the Attwood Group of businesses with its industry-leading brands, including Attwood, Garelick, MotorGuide, and Whale – all supported by a comprehensive, industry-leading systems design and integration capability. 

“Through organic growth, strategic acquisitions and technology development, Brunswick has rapidly expanded its global leadership position in Marine Parts and Accessories (P&A),” Brunswick’s Chief Executive Officer David Foulkes explained. “This broad and growing portfolio includes products that are closely aligned with and dependent on Mercury’s propulsion business, and other product offerings that are less closely aligned with propulsion.  The Power Products acquisition has significantly expanded the scale of these latter product lines.  The Advanced Systems Group will provide focused attention on the significant additional commercial growth opportunities for these newer business segments while still fully leveraging operating synergies across the enterprise.  Combined sales of the brands comprising the Advanced Systems Group are approximately 80% marine and 20% specialty and recreational vehicles and other applications.”

Dibkey joins Brunswick following 12 years at Whirlpool Corporation where he was most recently Vice President and General Manager, Business Units, Brand Marketing, eCommerce and IoT. At Whirlpool he had business responsibility for the Company’s parts and accessories business along with full P&L responsibilities for a portfolio of strategic, high growth businesses. In addition, he served as the head of brand marketing across the company’s brand portfolio. Prior to his career at Whirlpool, he worked in a variety of business development and strategic planning roles for Pfizer and Crowe Horwath, LLP. Dibkey graduated from Butler University with a degree in finance and accounting and earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

“I am pleased to welcome Brett to Brunswick to lead the Advanced Systems Group.   His vast experience in successfully managing and growing a portfolio of P&A and premium engineered product businesses in additional to his experience in IoT, eCommerce and innovation leadership ideally matches our ambitions for the Advanced Systems Group and will be leveraged across the enterprise,” said Foulkes.  “Both Mercury Marine-related propulsion P&A and Advanced Systems P&A are high margin segments with resilience to economic cycles and are platforms for significant future growth.  Chris Drees – President, Mercury Marine will continue to lead the Mercury P&A business which is well integrated into our industry-leading propulsion offering, as well as our distribution businesses,” added Foulkes. 

Over the past several months, Brunswick has implemented a comprehensive set of actions aimed at solidifying and advancing its position within the global marine market including the acquisition of Freedom Boat Club, establishment of the Aluminum and Venture boat groups, and the opening of the Boat Group Technology Center. 

“Along with our leading Engine and Boat portfolio, and our exciting, expanding portfolio of marine service, integration and shared-access businesses, we are confident that our well established and growing position in Propulsion Parts and Advanced Systems will further enable us to uniquely innovate the future of recreational boating.