The demise of OMC

[Roy Hodges]

I had a good friend that owned a boat shop out in the desert. When he opened the shop, he opened a trailer park across the street. Because the trailer park and boat shop were in BF Egypt, he decided to install a gas pump, because frequently, he was so far from town a man couldn't get gas...

About 30 years later, the EPA NAZIS came by and asked him where his permit was to have a gas pump??? He said he didn't need no stinking permit....Well, the EPA "DUDE" thought he did.. and said he'd be back...Well, my friend, not one to really trust or like the GOVERNMENT, dug up his gas pump and gas tank...But he was smart enough to take pictures of where he dug it up...


He moved the tank and pump over to the right about 40 feet....The EPA "DUDE" showed up and asked where his permit was to take out the gas pump???

He said, "Well Gaul Dang, I didn't have a permit to put it in the ground, I didn't think I needed a permit to take it out of the ground...."

Well, the EPA "DUDE" said he'd be back.....

Well they came back and made my friend dig down six feet to see if his tank, which had been moved 40 feet, had leaked...Sure enough, they were sure that "Sucker" had leaked..and they required him to dig 12 feet below the surface...

Damn, 12 feet down, and they couldn't find anything...so, they told him to "WATCH IT".....

Forty miles out in the desert, a 200 gallon tank.....if the sucker leaked all 200 gallons what would it have hurt???

Master Oil....I'd like an EPA report from you....

ADD: Santa Barbara has so much oil under it, it leaks on to the shore...but the environmental wackos, don't want drilling there...Anyone besides me ever think that environmental wackos may be financed by the ARABS????

One car, with a closed garage door, will kill you in 20 minutes....but a two stroke outboard is bad for AMERICA???? Let's all move to China and get a job.

well, i really don't wanna move to china & getta job, i already retired ; ( retard ?) I remember in the "way back machine" that Carl& co. at lake X in the late 50's or early 60's , did a check on outboard polution . results = ZILCH !
and i actually believe their findings . I am NOT a Mercury fan (read...BRUNSWICK ) but i did believe that . Lets face it , whats right is right , whats wrong is wrong , & i am a
MODERATE . I hate far wrong or the far lefts , they are both full of s**t. ( they are both equally vicious )

[Skoontz]

Powerboat magazine did an article in 1969 or 70 about the effects of pollution from two stroke boats.

Basically it said that it would require 77 boats in an acre of waterspace to even make close to the claims of the whoa is me hugg a tree whackopaths.

it showed a full page picture with that many boats in an acre to demonstrate. Lately the chain of lakes in McHenry just might have that many...3 deep around Blarney's island and no freeken wake zones everywhere....

[Roy Hodges]

I have never unnerstood these "no wake zones" . That mean you gotta be "asleep , going through it ? ". why can't these jerks realize that some boats , the faster they go , the LESS wake it produces ?(planing boats ) . take a hydro , fer instance . At 5 mph , it makes quite a wake . At 50 mph , hardly a ripple , or am I dreaming ? It seems to me that these rules must have been dreamed up in some ones' sleep , back in about 1790 ?

[Roy Hodges]

I don't have a crystal ball, so i don't know how well BOMBARDIER will suceed , but they have my best wishes . Go, Evinrude !!!

[Michael J Gwaltney]

That is a plain shame Michael, but in real estate, everything runs full circle, eventually. I have many fond memories of riding in dad's '53and '68 Chevy trucks pulling a trailer loaded with motors. In those days, I got to see "Mr. Epple" in his office, because my childhood wishes were to be the service manager of Johnson when I grew up. Lemme ask you, is Gordy still around from Waukegan marine or did they go by the wayside when OMC took a dump?

Then there were the returns of my dad from OMC service school. He enjoyed the week up there and really learned alot that he passed along. I know of dozens of folks who lost their jobs at OMC when it dumped, and the scenario reminds me alot of Aurora, Illinois. They had Barber-Greene,
Austin-Western, Thor tool, and Caterpillar, before Cat added robots to several buildings. All but Cat are gone, the interior of the town turned to monkey sputum, and it sounds like that is what happened to Waukegan.

I'm thinking the land transfer may have been altered by the EPA findings in the lake, claims of Mercury and all kinds of self rightuos liberal garbage were supposed to be in there from the plant, and I'm betting then from what you dsay the environmental issues may have made the sale of the land undoable for man investors.

I also take ANYTHING the EPA finds with a grain of salt, because we all know how they manipulate their numbers to prove their cases. Need I mention the small engine and two stroke scare, when the geniouses could not make their claim that small engines create 10% of the worlds air pollution...So, they factored engines under 100 HP into the equation to get the numbers they needed. I will also add, the engine in one of my Cat D-3 dozers is 93 HP, and I might ask if ANYONE would consider that a small engine....

Sorry, sidetracking here...I do know OMC had that environmental issue looming overhead in the late 80's through the 90's.

Many dealers made a point to visit Waukegan Marine while in Waukegan. When a part was not available they knew to call Gordy Smith, an encyclopedia of the parts business.

During the Formula One V-8 era Gordy cleared out his service shop and parking lot for several days to enable crews to prepare for races in the midwest.

Gordy Smith ran the store until his death in February 1998. The inventory and equipment was sold. Only the "Waukegan Marine" painted on the building remains.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Ron---I could write about EPA and all the other state and federal agencies I have worked with for a month and still not cover all the falsities, lies, manufactured claims and hypocritical positions. Don't get me wrong. I was one of the early environmentalists going back to the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1968 or 69. There was and has been a lot of good from many of the regulations. However, there is now an agenda the likes of which has grown all powerful. What they do in front of the camera is not what goes on behind the scenes. Seen it with my own eyes, and my own rubber protected feet.

There is pollution occurring right now because the agencies that grant sites cannot overcome politics so waste is accumulating, being bootlegged or placed in less desirable locations that could be resulting in very slow pollution right now. (such as a landfill surrounded by rice fields. How smart is that?) If you don't believe me, I've got aerials to prove it.

Also you got a question for one of the agencies that they can't look up in a book, forget it. They can't give you an answer. They will sit on it for a year then give you a call and say, "what did you do with that stuff?" And if you're a representative with lot's of time in congress, you can call someone to haul off leaking drums of hazardous waste from your property and just get rid of it. If you tell him that you have to get samples, MSDS's, and take it to a licensed disposal, you never get a call back, and nothing ever happened. There were never any drums on that congressman's property.

I'm glad I don't have to deal with that stuff anymore. We spent so much money to get screwed time and time again that it makes me mad just to think about it. Trying to do the right thing when you deal with a bunch of power hungry politicians, beauracrats and phony environmentalists with an agenda, and a liberal news media, you will never succeed. Got to go to work, and its hot and now I'm HOT Thanks guys for letting me vent

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Your clarity of vision and facts about what is going on is refreshing. What your seeing is an old adage, Get Rich At Any Cost Today - For Tommorow You May Die! Another one is that we are mortgaging our childrens future with what we did in the past. Don't get Hot and Angry, Get Very Cold and Get Even!

[Skoontz]

Michael:

Sorry to here about Gordy. He told me at my dad's funeral that the boating industry lost a great one, and not knowing Gordy had passed so long ago, I know now that one of the best passed. He was the guy who got me any weird thing I needed for my projects that I could never afford to buy new.

As I look back at all the marinas that have fallen by the wayside over the years, it's sad. The times I had along the river growing up are what every kid should have.

[Skoontz]

1903 - Johnson Brothers (Lou, Harry and Clarence) of Indiana build their first two-cycle inboard marine engine.
1907 - Wisconsin resident Ole Evinrude invents the outboard motor, a single-cylinder 1 1/2-horsepower engine for row boats. He considers it a gadget, but his wife realizes its potential and begins pushing marketing efforts.

1909 - Evinrude forms Evinrude Motor Corp. in Waukegan.

1929 - Evinrude Motor Corp. merges with the Elto and Lockwood motor corporations to form Outboard Motors Corp.

1936 - Evinrude's son, Ralph, along with co-founder S.F. Briggs, buys the Johnson Motor Corp. and the Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Corp. is born. the name is shortened to Outboard Marine Corp. in 1956.

1936-1982 - Under Ralph's leadership as president and chairman, the firm expands both its marine line and ventured into non- marine items such as Lawn-Boy power mowers, Ryan turf-care equipment and Cushman industrial vehicles. He retires in 1982.

October 1978 - OMC hits its high-water mark in terms of Waukegan employees with a workforce of 4,000.

September 1983- New plants constructed in Calhoun, GA and Burnsville & Spruce Pine, NC

July 1988 - OMC announces record sales and earnings for the third quarter of its fiscal year, with earnings up 21 percent and sales up 18 percent over the previous year.

August 1989 - Third quarter earnings plunge for OMC amidst a major decline in boating industry sales. Bad weather is initially blamed as the culprit in the boat sales slump, but it turns out to be the beginning of a recession. OMC reports a third-quarter net income of $6.8 million, down 75 percent from 1988.

March 1991 - OMC management, hit by a downturn in the recreational marine industry since the spring of 1989, says it hopes to emerge stronger once the recession ends. Meanwhile, the corporation reduces its salaried employees by 16 percent and cuts back on its manufacturing workforce wherever necessary. OMC eventually loses $84.3 million in 1991.

July 1993 - OMC announces another round of restructuring, which would reduces its worldwide workforce by 400, including 20 white- collar jobs at its Waukegan headquarters.

November 1995 - Strong demand for Johnson and Evinrude outboard engines fuels a 14 percent sales increase in fiscal 1995 for OMC, the company announces.

February 1997 - Citing continued softness in retail sales, OMC announces it is cutting back on production of both boats and engines.

September 1997 - OMC purchased by Greenmarine Holdings... David D. Jones is named President and Chief Executive Officer. The new owners of OMC, Greenmarine Acquisition Corp. of New York, announces they will take the Waukegan-based company private in the near future. OMC had lost $450 million from 1990 through 1996.

January 1998 - Following waves of layoffs, OMC's Waukegan workforce is down to 1,300.

April 1998 - OMC unveils a New Marine Company at THE LAUNCH. OMC announces it will trim its overall worldwide workforce by another 200 jobs. It eliminated 340 jobs earlier in the year, as well.

September 1998 - OMC announces it will lay off 911 workers and close its Waukegan and Milwaukee manufacturing facilities over a two-year period as a cost-saving measure. The operations at both locations are to be incorporated into the company's facilities in Calhoun, Ga., Burnsville, N.C. and Mexico.

May 1999 - OMC announces it will reduce its management payroll in Waukegan by 200 positions.

February 2000 - In an effort to downsize and move operations to the South and Mexico,OMC begins closures of it's Waukegan and Milwaukee facilities
(DEADLINE-DEC.2000).

December 2000 - OMC reduce's its worldwide workforce by about 6,000 employees, leaving just a handful of its staff, and retained an investment banking firm to evaluate strategic options.
The company said the moves to reduce costs and improve focus on key business segments are necessary to offset softness in the company's operating performance, which resulted primarily from material supplier problems in the engine division along with a recent slow down in the recreational marine market. Layoffs Are Indefinate!
OMC FILES CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY AND IS NOW FOR SALE!

February 2001 - Bombardier Corp. announced that its subsidiary Bombardier Motor Corporation of America and JTC Acquisition LLC have been selected the highest and otherwise best bidders for the assets of Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) and certain of its affiliates at an auction administered under an order of the Bankruptcy Court of Illinois.
Feb. 9th: Sale of OMC to Bombardier and Genmar approved by US bankruptcy court!

May 2001 - Bombardier announces the beginning of a new era in Evinrude and Johnson Motors. The new headquarters for Evinrude and Johnson Outboards will be in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. Plants in Calhoun, GA., Burnsville, NC. and Waukegan, IL. will be closed and operations will be moved to the new headquarters. Bombardier says they will begin manufacturing outboards in the fall of 2001.

[Mark75H]

Evinrude did not invent the outboard in 1907. Waterman outboards were already in production by 1907 and electric outboards (like trolling motors) were already 25 years old.

Ralph did not have much real control until the mid 1960's when Mr Briggs was getting up in years