International News: Bayliner dealership

World’s second-largest Bayliner dealership to close.

By IBI Magazine. Staff Jennings Boating Centers in Eugene, Oregon, said that it will be closing down on Saturday. It is the second-largest Bayliner dealer in the world, and had about 65 percent market share in its territory in southwest Oregon.

Marl Carter, general manager and vice president, told the Register-Guard that the recession had caused him to make cutbacks over the last year, and that he had laid off ten of 16 employees.

Carter said the store could have survived with further cutbacks and the elimination of every brand but Bayliner. “The bottom line is, I did not want to do that,” he told the paper. “I want to retire.”

The dealership has been at its Eugene location since 1958. Carter said the company’s Portland store, which is 81 years old, will remain open. He added that selling his dealership was not an option, because “nobody would buy a boat dealership right now.”

Carter said he is talking with Bayliner parent Brunswick and a competitor, Clemens Marina, about transferring the brand to that dealer. Chuck Meeker, the owner of Clemens Marina, said there are “details” to work out before he could comment.