MERCURY MARINE SETS ANOTHER RECORD FOR NUMBER FOR ENGINES ON DISPLAY AT THE 2019 FT. LAUDERDALE INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW
Nov 12, 2019
Mercury Marine continues to increase its presence at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show – one of the largest and most well-attended on-water shows in North America with another record showing in 2019. This year, Mercury again had the most engines on display during the show – and more than half of the engines on display at the Bahia Mar in-water portion of the show, were Mercury engines.
“Ft. Lauderdale continues to be an extremely important show for Mercury and our customers,” said Chris Drees, Mercury Marine president. “We continue to see strong share gains at key saltwater boat shows highlighted by new product such as the 450R, 350/400hp Verado as well as our V6 and V8 outboards which continue to grow in popularity. To begin the North American show season with another strong showing in Ft. Lauderdale shows that consumers are continuing to ask for Mercury’s four-stroke power.”
Like last year, Mercury has continued to add OEM’s, some displayed more Mercury engines in their booth than ever before, while others offered Mercury product for the first time. Boat builders pointed out Mercury’s commitment to reliability and quality as well as a commitment to be the best partner as the reason for their continued growth.
“I spoke to a few builders during the show who a few years ago who weren’t interested in a conversation with Mercury Marine,” said Randy Caruana, Mercury Marine vice president of the Americas and Asia Pacific. “Now, they are not only considering us, but we are a prominent part of their growth strategy.”
“Mercury has by far the most reliable and robust engine that exists and continues to invest heavily in the new technology,” said Mark Paulhus, Bertram Boats CEO. “When we thought about our brand, we didn’t want to sub-optimize our product by offering everyone’s engines. We decided to optimize around one package and Mercury was the clear product of choice.”
2019 is the third consecutive year of substantial growth for Mercury in Ft. Lauderdale – a trend driven by consumer demand and the popularity of higher horsepower options from Mercury that are lighter, faster and more fuel efficient than any other outboard in the market.
Mercury has invested more than $1.1B in R&D and expansion and capacity since 2008, and the results have shown in significantly increased presence not just at Ft. Lauderdale, but in Miami and other major shows around the world. This was underlined recently as Mercury joined Brunswick Corporation as the winner of the Most Innovative Company Award given out by Soundings Trade Only Magazine during the 2019 IBEX Trade Show.
Patrick Healey, Viking and Valhalla Boatworks CEO and president praised Mercury for their commitment to their customers saying it was their dedication and product that made his company consider Mercury for their new Valhalla project.
“We announced the Valhalla project on February 1st and the Mercury team was very aggressive and within six weeks we were together and here we are in Ft. Lauderdale with six boats – five of them are powered by Mercury,” said Healey.
“Last year was the strongest showing we ever had at FLIBS and this year was even stronger,” said Drees. “Our entire team has done a phenomenal job at growing our market share in saltwater and we expect this trend to continue as we move from Ft. Lauderdale into the heart of the 2020 show season.”
