Q&A with John Pfeifer, president, Mercury Marine

The last year has been very eventful for Mercury, with the introduction of its first purpose-built sterndrive engine in 2014, along with a number of new outboards.

There was also a change in leadership, as Mercury president Mark Schwabero was named president and chief operating officer of Brunswick Corp. Taking over his role was John Pfeifer, who had served as vice president – global operations for Mercury since 2012.

Pfeifer joined Brunswick in 2006 as president of the Brunswick Asia Pacific Group, and in 2008 was appointed president of Brunswick Marine in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Brunswick, Pfeifer most recently held executive positions with ITT Corporation and Milacron, Inc.

Boating Industry recently talked to Pfeifer about some of the changes and innovations at Mercury, and where the company is headed. You can read our full Q&A with Pfeifer in the February issue.

 

Boating Industry: 2014 ended up being a pretty big year for Mercury, with a lot of new products from the purpose-built sterndrive to new outboards. What was the highlight for you?

Pfeifer: You’re right. 2014 was a big year for us and there are a lot of highlights. I would say probably the biggest overarching highlight was our 75th anniversary.

We’ve made 15 million engines. In September 2014 we determined that we had made our 75,000th L6 Verado. We’ve made 140,000 total Verados if you include the L4 Verado, so it was a big year.

Along with that, we won the Manufacturer of the Year award for the mega category in Wisconsin. We were up against some pretty tough competition, so we were pretty delighted that we had won that manufacturer of the year award in our 75th anniversary.

From a company standpoint, in 2014 we completed and brought on line additional capacity in our castings group, in our machining group, in our assembly with that new 4.5-liter marine purpose-built sterndrive product. And we brought on line added ability in research and development, so it was really a huge year.

Then you add to that the introduction of the 75 to 115 four-stroke product, which has been a blockbuster already. We’re gaining market share with that product. … And, of course, the new marine purpose-built sterndrive engines. That’s the first marine purpose-built engine that we’ve had in the industry.

 

Boating Industry: Let’s talk about the purpose-drive sterndrive. Obviously, a significant decision for Mercury to go that direction. Why do you feel that’s the right way to go?

Pfeifer: This was a huge decision. I believe 100 percent – and everybody does here – that this was absolutely the right decision not only for Mercury, but also the entire industry.

For decades … all of our products, and all of the industry’s products, in sterndrive and inboard were automotive derivatives. That model served the industry pretty well for a long, long time. What’s changed and why we had to make a decision is that the auto industry is really working hard to meet and to exceed the fuel economy requirements that are coming from CAFE regulations.

So every year, the auto industry has to get its fleet to a higher level of fuel economy. As a result of that, the new automotive engines that are coming out are very different, they’re much more complex, they’ve got a lot of expensive new technology that is really aimed at on-road performance. Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily good for all marine applications. Some of the new technology they’re adding, like variable timing, they really don’t provide very much benefit … to marine applications and sometimes are hurting quality. They are adding cost without adding very much benefit.

Our new engines, they feature a cast iron block and the new auto engines are all aluminum There’s a problem with that as cast iron is certainly better for marine applications … because they [have] superior corrosion resistance.

Furthermore – and this is a critical point – a marine engine needs all of the torque and all of the power to be used continuously. If you look at an automotive engine, it needs torque and power during acceleration phases, but at cruise it doesn’t need nearly as much power. So we designed a new engine that’s reliable, that’s durable, at a continuous high-torque, high-RPM environment.

We believe we’ve got a really fantastic new product for Mercury and for the industry that’s really going to serve our boat builders well and is going to serve, most importantly, marine consumers really, really well.

 

Boating Industry: And we’ll continue to see that line of engines grow?

Pfeifer: This year we’ll come out with new products that are based on the same platform, a V8 for example, we’ll be bringing out in the third quarter of the year, so you’ll continue to see new products in this series.

 

Boating Industry: On the outboard side, you’ve got some new products coming out this year that I know you can’t talk about yet, but in general terms what can we expect to see from Mercury?

Pfeifer: I’ll talk as much as I can without giving away too many specifics. First of all, you’re going to see new outboard engines [at the Miami International Boat Show]. We’re really, really excited about them and we think they’re going to be fantastic new introductions for us. (Editor’s note: Visit BoatingIndustry.com during the Miami show to see our full report on the new Mercury engines.)

We’ve got a new commercial range of outboard engines that are just being released. It’s called a Mercury SeaPro. It’s a range of more powerful outboards that are specifically designed to meet commercial operator requirements, so that means products that are used on a daily basis with a lot more demanding applications than just a recreational outboard.

That’s another big move for us in ’15. They’re not designed for the recreational consumer, but a quarter of the market globally is commercial outboard product.

 Read more from Pfeifer in the February issue of Boating Industry.

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