Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Just Before The Weather Turns

Just in time before the weather turns


On Friday, all 5 Pride Marine Group locations completed our winterization and shrink wrap season. The weather held as one of the warmest and driest autumn’s in recent history allowing all the work to be completed 10-14 days ahead of location schedules. Looking at the Weather Network for the upcoming weeks, it looks like nothing but rain and eventually cold snow in the forecast for the next two weeks. A well deserved congratulations to all of the technicians and yard staff that were able to bed down 1,167 boats at our 5 locations and an additional 417 boats that have been safely winter serviced and raised in customer’s boathouses across cottage country. To get that amount of work done in less than 6 weeks is truly incredible. With well over a thousand boats on site, there will be lots of off season repairs and accessory installations to be done this winter to keep everyone very busy in January, February and March.



“A rolling stone gathers no moss” (Publilius Syrus) – so we are now in full swing for Boat Show preparations. Stay tuned for big changes in the Pride Marine Group Booth at the Toronto Boat Show this year!



Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Tale of 2 Boating Countries

Over the past 2 weeks, I have had the opportunity to experience the incredible difference between the American boating industry and the Canadian boating industry.
Before I left the hotel on Oct 30 for Day 1 at the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show (the largest boat show in the world), I checked my email. An industry publication had broken the story that Genmar's Chapter 11 reorganization (link - http://www.boating-industry.com/output.cfm?id=2345977) had officially moved toward asset liquidation. That made for an interesting dynamic for the Lauderdale Show to say the least. Sales representatives for the Genmar Brands (Four Winns, Larson, Glastron, Hydrosport, Carver, Wellcraft, Seaswirl, Ranger,etc) were reeling while their competitors were too concerned trying to keep their own houses in order to even mention it. Financial forclosures, bank reposessions, "No Warranty Sales", and dealers walking away from inventory issues or customer issues was the theme for 5 days in Florida. The remaining minority of quality, well run manufacturers were struggling to find customers to engage in a normal purchase conversation centred around products, customer needs and value.
Two days after arriving back in to Canada from the Lauderdale Show, I was at the Cottage Life Fall Show in Toronto. What a difference of attitude north of the border. The three day Fall Show has always been a great place for us to reaquaint with customers and build toward the Toronto Boat Show in January. Amazingly this year, twice as many customers decided to purchase boats during the Show than we had ever experienced at the Cottage Life Fall Show before. Not once was the economy discussed in three days. Conversations of customer needs, new products and relationship value were occuring. Customers asked about boat availability and our ability to take care of their long term needs. The show was populated with people smiling and families passionate about cottaging and boating were trying to mentally fast forward through the next 6 months to Victoria Day Weekend 2010.
Our world in Canada is almost back to normal and a steady economic recovery is gaining traction. More than ever, I am very happy to live and work in Canada.