No Treats This Halloween by Jim Shepherd

gengberg October 30th, 2009

FEATURE

No Treats This Halloween


We’re starting to ring down the curtain on what has been, by
many accounts, a tough year for our industry. With the exception of some
boom-times in firearms and ammunition (and that bubble has started to
deflate somewhat), times have been tough.

Overlooked in the economic hubbub is the toll a bad economy takes on
wildlife advocacy groups. Many depend solely on memberships and donations
for their revenues. For many of those groups, the numbers have dropped -
some precipitously. In fact, I’m hearing the numbers at a couple of the
larger and more active groups have dropped as much as fifty percent. That
is a serious knock on even their bottom lines.

For some groups, there are other problems, including
costly litigation
with ousted former executives. Quail Unlimited, the oldest and largest of
the quail groups, is under criminal investigation by the ATF unaccounted
firearms; those investigations and management problems have splintered that
organization, left it without an executive management team, and have state
QU groups vowing to fix the organization - even if it means starting from
scratch. In the meantime, the organization as surviving - but is
essentially ineffective nationally.

While their situation is unusual, membership losses have led many groups
to reduce staff and cutback on programs. Their ongoing wildlife programs
have been invaluable resources to many state wildlife agencies also feeling
budget squeezes.

Yesterday, I spoke with David Allen, President and CEO of the Rocky
Mountain Elk Foundation about the situation. Allen was candid about the
problems many organizations face. After all, he told me, RMEF had faced
many of their own
“challenges” over the past few years. RMEF, he says, is
regaining momentum - and members - by focusing on realities and their core
constituency -hunter conservationists.

“Some groups have been living beyond their means,” he said, “you can’t
live in anticipation of money. Here, for example, I tell the staff ‘we
won’t spend money we don’t have’. It meant downsizing our undertakings and
cutting expenses, but it is just an economic reality.”

Allen says finances aren’t the single biggest challenge facing
organizations. That, he says, is a one-word threat: complacency.
Complacency, he says, is reflected in the fact that there are 1,000,000 elk
tags sold annually - but only twenty percent of those hunters are RMEF
members. While it’s unrealistic to presume all off them would ever become
RMEF members, Allen makes a good case that the absence of that remaining
eighty percent of elk hunters- as is true in any affinity wildlife group -
deprives the organization of the
two things that fuel their work: funds,
and volunteers.

He remains convinced, however, that the single biggest concern for all
wildlife groups can be summed up in a single word: habitat. Fighting
habitat loss, unfortunately, takes time, money and volunteers. Today, many
of the organizations are lacking in money and volunteers - and that may
mean their time is running out.

“As a group,” he adds,”we also tend not to support each other and act as a
group until there’s a crisis - then we overreact.”

Will all the groups survive? “Not without some consolidation, I’m afraid,”
Allen said,“we have to find ways to get together for some of these groups
to survive. I’m not optimistic everyone will.”

Yesterday, two groups announced they will be working together in 2010.
Dallas Safari Club and Ducks Unlimited both have annual conventions set for
Dallas (DSC’s First Light is January 7-10, DU’s Convention and Expo is May
28-30). Each will take
a major sponsor’s role in the other’s event.

“This partnership allows both organizations to connect with completely
different segments of the hunting community,” says DSC’s executive Director
Ben Carter, ” Waterfowlers can learn about our big game initiatives, attend
our show and have an opportunity to support us. And our deer and kudu and
sheep fanatics can do the same for wetlands and prairie potholes.”

DU CEO Randy L. Graves, says, “Hunters have demonstrated time and again
that they’re devoted to wildlife conservation in all its forms, so we’re
excited at the potential of this new partnership to grow support for both
conventions.”

On Monday, we’ll be running a feature that will might help motivate some
of our readers to get involved as volunteers. It will concentrate on things
to consider before you volunteer, including setting realistic expectations
and commitments before you get involved.

Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC)
announced its third quarter numbers
yesterday, and they provided a glaring insight into just how difficult the
boating business is these days. We’ve seen Irwin Jacobs’ GENMAR in
bankruptcy and heard how difficult it has been, but the boating business
has been listed as the primary reason Brunswick’s numbers were, once again
down.

Overall, a loss of $1.29 per share during the quarter, but more than half
of those losses were related to business-related charges. Total sales,
however, were down 36 percent, primarily the result of marine sales- down a
staggering forty percent from last year’s already-declining numbers.

Brunswick Chairman and CEO Dustan E. McCoy says they’re making progress,
but battling a “global marine market that has experienced its lowest level
of demand in more than 45 years.”

How low is low? Very.

Mercury Marine Group reported a 29 percent decline in Q3 sales of engines,
parts and accessories over Q3 last year.
International sales, more than
forty percent of their sales in normal conditions, dropped twenty-seven
percent. Furloughs, production cuts and other savings were largely offset
by higher than anticipated bad debt expenses . A large portion of that bad
debt can be attributed to the problems associated with the GENMAR
bankruptcy. GENMAR is a large customer for Mercury products.

The 17 various brand in the Brunswick Boat Group reported a sixty-two
percent decline in Q3 sales, and there’s no indication that the boats won’t
continue to leak red ink in the near-term. Again, reductions in force,
furloughs, cuts in production and other savings measures do not compensate
for a dead marketplace. Adding insult to injury, deep discounts on existing
inventory haven’t produced an upswing in sales, and the discounts add to an
already hemorrhaging bottom line

McCoy says the company’s still anticipating and planning for some upturn
in 2010. Boat and engine manufacturing
facilities will begin to ramp up
production in anticipation of historically-low dealer inventories meaning
more boats and motors will be needed. If that happens, the company says it
should provide improved revenue and reduced losses through 2010.

Note the description is “reduced losses” not positive revenues. The tough
times for the boating industry, like RVs, won’t end in 2010.

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