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RazorCat.
Probably old news but looks like Stratos is going away. With Reese and Nixon moving to Ranger anyway. It will be curious to see what brands will be around next few years. As always makes me feel good knowing i am with a company that will continue to be around a long time.
Looks like both Stratos and Ranger are owned by the same company, Fishing Holdings, LLC. Not sure if this means that Stratos is going away, or that Fishing Holdings is making moves to focus its Elite Series and FLW Tour pro sponsorship on the Ranger brand.
After the 2010 bankruptcy Platinum Equity purchased the assets of Ranger through court proceedings, which was a Genmar holding, forming Fishing (Fishboat) Holdings, LLC. They also purchased the Tennessee assets of Genmar which were Stratos and Champion. They merged the companies into one manufacturing plant at the Flippin facility. After that was all acquired from bankruptcy court and merged they purchased Triton, for an unknown amount, from Brunswick (Mercury Parent). The only thing known on that purchase is the amount Brunswick wrote off as a loss on Triton Boats, just over or roughly $18,000,000.00. They also moved that to the Flippin, AR facility. Since then apparently Champion is no longer produced and now you indicate Stratos is also going away. We have not seen indications of this.BCBLast edited by Bass Cat Boats on January 8th, 2014, 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
That may very well be the case. I got 2 emails from Ranger in the past week outlining their 2014 promotions & specials, but too late! I have a Bass Cat on order. Even though you rarely see a Cat in my area I think I will be happy with my choice. Last time over at Rend I saw a Dozen different Rangers. I have only saw one Cat fishing Rend in 2 years. I rarely fish the weekends but I doubt those numbers would change much.DanILBassAddict wrote:Looks like both Stratos and Ranger are owned by the same company, Fishing Holdings, LLC. Not sure if this means that Stratos is going away, or that Fishing Holdings is making moves to focus its Elite Series and FLW Tour pro sponsorship on the Ranger brand.
I see a few Cats on the mighty Frog Pond (Rend Lake) I have an Eyra, know of a few P2s and a Cougar, used to be a dealer in Salem, Kents Marine, he closed several years ago, so you still see some 90s models on Rend or Forbes. Linc W.
I have seen the one, but I am sure not fishing weekends makes a difference. Rend Lake Marina used to be & Nameoki Village is a Ranger dealer. Last trip I was on Rend talked to a guy that had his Z118 on its maiden voyage from NVM. He had a Mercury 150HP 4 stroke on it. I am thinking my choice of the 4 stroke was a good one.Danlincwoody wrote:I see a few Cats on the mighty Frog Pond (Rend Lake) I have an Eyra, know of a few P2s and a Cougar, used to be a dealer in Salem, Kents Marine, he closed several years ago, so you still see some 90s models on Rend or Forbes.Linc W.
There are more BassCats on Rend Lake than you think . I use to fish a different brand years ago. Im on my 2nd BassCat had a Pantera II then upgraded to a Cougar FTD . I will be BassCat For Life, The Family owned and quality and pride they have in there boats are second to none. You want to join the BassCat Family give Dupo Marine a call for all your sales and service needs.
Well it will not bother me having the only Bass Cat on the water for a day. I am sure my New Sabre FTD will draw some attention in 2014 and beyond. Marty at Dupos was the first I contacted on trying to trade for a New Bass Cat. He would not take my boat in on trade and his price was one of the highest I was quoted even though I would have been buying outright. Fortunately there were other dealers that were Happy to make a Trade with me and I am Very Happy with the deal I ended up with. Marty was a Nice guy, very welcoming, patient, and polite there was just no way we were going to arrive at a deal. To me dealers vary widely for any product, Bass Cat being no exception. Some are very knowledgeable, some are not, Some communicate well, some not so much, some price the product very competitively, some are unbelievably high, etc., etc.DanRanger wrote:There are more BassCats on Rend Lake than you think . I use to fish a different brand years ago. Im on my 2nd BassCat had a Pantera II then upgraded to a Cougar FTD . I will be BassCat For Life, The Family owned and quality and pride they have in there boats are second to none. You want to join the BassCat Family give Dupo Marine a call for all your sales and service needs.
wareaglecat wrote:Probably old news but looks like Stratos is going away. With Reese and Nixon moving to Ranger anyway. It will be curious to see what brands will be around next few years. As always makes me feel good knowing i am with a company that will continue to be around a long time.I saw that, too, about Larry Nixon moving over to Ranger, but I didnt take it to mean that Stratos was necessarily shutting down (although the writing may be on the wall as you suggest). I kind of just saw it as Platinum shuffling assets (Nixon & Reese) to another brand for marketing reasons (balancing the pro staff exposure among the brands, etc). Who knows what their Statos volume is anymore, but we know it isnt anywhere near what it used to be, and at a certain point Platinum Equity has to be looking at the long-term viability of maintaining multiple brands on substantially reduced volume (with all the extra tooling, manufacturing, supply, and advertising costs that come with keeping separate brands in the same market alive).
Theres a post on BBC that list sales statistics for the major manufacturers.http://www.bbcboards.net/bbc-lounge/441 … otals.htmlStratos had decent sales in all years listed. Although sales have declined somewhat in the past couple of years there still decent. Higher than some other very popular brands.
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