T-H Marine Supplies, Inc., of Huntsville, Alabama, announces the acquisition of the assets of Blue Water LED Enterprises, LLC (Blue Water) of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Blue Water designs, assembles, and sells a broad and unique line of LED light kits and lighting components for boats, kayaks, autos/trucks, trailers, ATVs/UTVs, golf carts, RVs, off-road vehicles, public safety vehicles, and utility trucks. Blue Water has long been known as the pioneer and market leader in LED light kits for bass boats and professional bass fishermen.

“We are so excited to announce the acquisition of the Blue Water assets," T-H Marine’s president, Jeff Huntley, stated. "We have long-admired the quality of their products and their status as the market share leader for aftermarket LED light kits. The team at Blue Water have built a great company of superior-quality products, all with a lifetime warranty, and we look forward of taking their vision to the next level.” 

“It’s been an awesome experience to grow our company and to meet so many of our customers and dealers," stated Jeff Hillard, one of the original founders and president of Blue Water LED. "Our faith-based company has operated on the principles of providing superior-quality products, excellent customer service, and an unprecedented lifetime warranty."

"We have loved serving our loyal customers over the years and we are excited that even more customers will now have access to Blue Water products through an industry leader, T-H Marine. We know T-H Marine cares about quality, stands behind its products, and really cares for its customers, so it’s a great fit. We are proud to know they will nurture the line of Blue Water products into the future.

”Huntley also said, “T-H Marine is known as an industry leader in supplying LED lights to the boat manufacturers. But Blue Water was THE visionary in creating easy-to-buy, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-install LED Light Kits for the aftermarket customer to add to their boats and for dealers to install in boats."

"It is astonishing to me that Blue Water has been doing LED kits since 2005 – yes 13 years! – so they have an established and diverse dealer network in place across the US and a customer base like no one else in the boating market. We look forward to continuing and growing all of those dealer relationships and establishing even more through our wide distribution network, so more dealers and do-it-yourself customers can really light up their boats!

”Huntley said that the Blue Water assets are being moved to T-H Marine headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, where future assembly and shipping of the product will occur. There will be no disruption to Blue Water customers or suppliers, just more access to the products through more places than ever. Blue Water LED products will be up and running as a T-H Marine brand in a matter of days. 

“Quality brands and products like Blue Water are what we seek to add to our strong portfolio of brands," Huntley continued. "This is our fifth acquisition in the past five years along with many product license acquisitions. We love being known as the go-to company for launching and acquiring innovative brands and products."

"We have proven our ability to use great ideas, from inside our plant, from our boatbuilding customers, from inventors, and from smaller companies, and really blow them up in the market. We have experienced compound annual growth of over 20% per year over the past eight years and we are not planning to slow down. The acquisition of the Blue Water assets puts us into a clear market leadership position in aftermarket LED light kits and we look forward to growing even more. We also look forward to the immediate access Blue Water provides to several other markets outside of boats.”

Read more: T-H Marine acquires Blue Water LED Enterprises

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (May 21, 2018)– Mercury Marine has been awarded the 2018 Most Innovative Product for its all-new V-8 FourStroke outboard family.  The award was presented to the company during last weekend’s Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show, the biggest and most popular boat show in New Zealand for the past 60 years.

The show marked the first time these new engines have been displayed in public as they were launched globally on May 18.  On display at the Mercury booth was the full range of V-8 4.6L outboards including the 250hp and 300hp FourStroke as well as the all-new Pro XS lineup.

“We are honored to win the Innovative Product award for our all-new V-8 4.6L outboard platform,” said Randy Caruana, Mercury Marine vice president of sales for the Americas and Asia Pacific. “These engines were a huge hit in New Zealand and this was a great market to showcase them for the first time.  Since we launched these engines last week, the response has been incredible from our customers around the world.”

Mercury’s new V-6 and V-8 outboard engine launch is the largest in Mercury’s history and are highly configurable to meet the needs of a wide variety of boating segments, from Verado’s refined performance, to the FourStroke’s fuel efficiency and rigging versatility, to the competitive edge that Pro XS provides serious sport fishermen.  Along with the 3.4L V-6 family released in February, the new V-8 engines fill out Mercury’s industry leading portfolio in the 175-300hp range.  

“The consumer is going to love Mercury’s new V-8 platform,” said Caruana. “Our customers who have been on the product said they couldn’t believe how lightweight and powerful these engines are.  When the new V-8’s make their way into the marketplace, this will fundamentally set a new bar for the 175-300hp range.”  

Read more: Mercury Marine Wins Most Innovative International Product for new V-8 outboard lineup