The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey approved the sale of the operating assets of Hunter Marine Corp. late Tuesday night and \u201cselected assets\u201d of Mainship Corp. and the Luhrs Corp. to Marlow Acquisitions LLC, according to a letter the company sent Wednesday to Hunter dealers.<\/p>\n
The letter was sent to Soundings Trade Only by Hunter president and chief restructuring officer John Peterson, who said he has spent the last two days in court trying to tie up the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the judge said he was impressed by the expediency with which this whole thing has been handled,\u201d Peterson told Soundings Trade Only.\u00a0Peterson expects the deal to close within the month, he said.<\/p>\n
Marlow Acquisitions is affiliated with Marlow companies operating worldwide across a broad spectrum of marine and related industries in a vertically integrated manufacturing and distribution environment, the letter sent to dealers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Marlow will be writing directly over the next few days, so I do not want to go into more details at this point other than to state that he enthusiastically believes in boating as a recreation lifestyle; he has a keen focus on new boats as the driving force to accomplish increased sales; and has a 40-year history of profitable boat building,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n
Peterson quoted a line from one of Marlow\u2019s many emails to give dealers a glimpse of his philosophy: \u201cOne item I am concerned with is the concept that any alterations would be made in the planned output of QC procedures to enhance short term revenues. My hallmark is quality and there is no better time to begin than the beginning. It would be extremely counterproductive to shape deliveries around eking out a bit more cash flow \u2026 than spending the necessary dollars on QC,\u201d Marlow wrote, according to Peterson\u2019s letter to dealers.<\/p>\n
Marlow Yachts builds the Marlow Explorer, Marlow Voyager and Marlow Prowler lines of yachts, the letter said. Marlow has a boatbuilding yard in China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese yachts are produced using technologies many generations beyond common industry standards in a Marlow-built and owned environmentally green facility with approximately 250,000 square feet of purpose built production halls and supporting assets that include approximately 300 highly skilled artists and technicians,\u201d the letter said. \u201cThese botanical park-like facilities have twice been awarded status as the only fully green and environmentally sensitive yacht manufacturing facilities on earth. Marlow Yachts performance products and methods of operation have received numerous industry and independent awards for proprietary, innovative and higher technology processes while being considered one of the highest quality yacht producers on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n