API Marine, a division of SEI Marine Products, announced that it changed to a dealer-direct sales program.
Effective immediately, all dealers can buy direct at distributor pricing.
“This new two-step strategy will greatly reduce the cost of our product, allow free standard delivery in the continental USA and provide two levels of mark-up for our dealers,” API Marine general manager Brian Schnieder said in a statement. “The spread available to the dealer between distributor price and MSRP will be 200 percent plus on most parts.”
“The three-step model involving manufacturers, distributors and dealers has been on life support for years in the automotive parts business. It was inevitable that the marine industry would feel the same pressures and change to a two-step model,” SEI Marine Products general manager Justin Webb said.
“We have been very successful over the last 10 years building the world’s largest lower unit aftermarket business using a two-step model, so we know it works and our dealer customers like it,” Webb added.
All 7,000 SEI Marine Products dealers will automatically have active accounts for which they can buy from API Marine at distributor prices.
