Manufacturers get creative with inventory

By Mike Davin, online editor, Boating Industry — The top headline in today’s Boating Industry e-newsletter is about Southport Marine’s “Floor Plan Free” buying program, which eliminates stocking requirements for dealerships and encourages dealers to carry a single demonstration model.

Back in March, Regal Marine attacked the inventory problem a different way, opening its 15,000-square-foot Regal Factory Showroom in Central Florida. “We built the showroom for our dealers so they could present to their customers Regal models they do not have in stock,” Duffy Stenger, vice president of Sales and Marketing at Regal, said at the time.

Obviously dealers will not be stocking inventory at the levels they did in the past for a long time, if ever. Have you seen any other creative ways to deal with the decreased availability of floor plan financing? Does the Internet have a role to play in the future of dealerships? Leave your thoughts below.