Local Businesses at the London Boat Show
By Susan Stockwell
I love the question in the “Am I Paul Calf quiz” that goes “Am I talking enthusiastically with two complete strangers about starting a business first thing in the morning?”. Well, if you want to be inspired to get beyond that stage to having a useful business then the London Boat Show is a great place. Many of the businesses are pretty small but they are doing what the people who set them up intended, making a living and making stuff that gives a lot of people a good time. There is a real atmosphere of pride and pleasure in being part of an industry at that show that is making customers so happy.
The Bournemouth and Poole conurbation is making a pretty good showing this year. With apologies to any I’ve missed I managed to get a look in on the following.
Taking centre stage for giving people something to remember from the show and make it a great place to bring the next generation are Rockley Watersports. Not only do they very public spiritedly organise the local Wessex branch of the British Marine Federation but they also supply the chance to try out various water sports at the show in an indoor water facility. As a mother of teenagers myself it was great to see kids so motivated, enthusiastic and co-opertive, the kind of thing that can make such a difference for us all. Where the show was taking place was so close to where London’s youngsters had been rioting only a few months ago. We should be proud that a Dorset company was bringing the generations together in such a positive way. At the other end of the show taking pride of place was the Sunseeker stand with some very smiley very blond young ladies playing some very jolly music on string instruments to celebrate the launch of a new model of boat. It can be easy to think you don’t have too much in common with a business involved in providing such an expensive product. However, it was founded by a couple of local brothers, and has a history of pushing on through the decades. Telling as many people as possible about what you’ve got to offer(remember the James Bond films) and giving people what they want strikes me as having kept this company as major employer in the area. Probably something any business can learn from. As soon as you lose respect for the customers, and stop listening out for what they want and how that changes over the years, things can get a bit difficult.
Local specialist company Coleman Insurance was also present exhibiting with Sunseeker to offer a product specifically tailored to that boat range. However, they are also a very respectably sized employer in Poole that prides itself on being able to boldly go where a bog standard insurance search engine can’t go. It was interesting to hear them so positive about what they could do that a consumer internet search couldn’t rather than simply despairing of how they would be able to compete with seemingly large .com type enterprises. It maybe shows anyone who is wondering if competition with a faceless website presence is possible that it is.
My next port of call at the show was Cobra Ribs, who have taken up premises locally to cope with expansion in the recent past. Again, although on a smaller scale, they are doing quite a bit better that just keeping afloat if you’ll pardon the expression, by customising products. Their design is just an absolute pleasure to be around. It has the feel of a business where someone has really held out for things to be done according to some kind of vision, and it has paid off.
IPC Marine Media, publishers of the UK’s biggest selling yachting magazine Practical Boat Owner, and based in Poole, was also exhibiting, again, a local company not happy to just rest on its laurels as the best, nor retreat in a panic in the face of endless news stories to the effect that the country is going to the dogs. Instead, they are out there chasing new business and clinging on jealously to customers with the best of them.
Last and definitely not least, and with apologies to the many local organisations I haven’t included in this piece, were the RNLI, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which provides lifeboat cover all round the British Isles, ie for both the UK and Eire or Southern Ireland. When it built the fantastic new training college at Poole over the last few years, it did of course have a choice of where to build and it decided to stay in the area. The skills and expertise that it has built up mean that the lifeboats designed and built in our conurbation can be exported abroad when other countries need a boat built specifically for such a purpose. The training can also be exported with the facility to train teams from abroad. As in many modern charities a strong business ethic exists in this organisation which is pioneering huge efficiencies in its operation which would be the envy of many large commercial enterprises. Ideas like this are inspiring to other industries and hopefully contribute to a positive outlook.
On the morning of the show’s launch the trade group that puts the show on, The British Marine Federation, fielded a pretty decent interview from it’s chairman on breakfast TV. He quoted that the industry is worth 3 billion pounds a year to the UK economy of which 1 billion is exports. He also expressed the opinion that those exports could and would be growing.
From what I saw of the marine business as represented by local companies at London Boat Show, we will be exporting on quality, enthusiasm and a willingness to serve the customer, and not on the whim of currency fluctuations.
In an era when all the mainstream media seems interested in is the construction industry, and we are led by a man who wants to build us out recession, despite the country being plagued with empty properties, it is a pleasant change to be surrounded by a sector of the economy that is doing something a bit more useful. It will be interesting to see how the forthcoming LEP, or Local Economic Partnership, replacing the government Regional Development Associations, involves the marine sector in Dorset. The marine sector, like the care sector, was rather conspicuous in it’s absence from the albeit very lengthy listing of those consulted for the LEP’s eventually successful bid to central government.
Just to finish, a little plug for the second Sandbanks Boatshow running this year on the long weekend Fri May 11th to Sun May 13th 2012 at Salterns Marina. This was set up last year when Liverpool Boat Show folded and so a local business leapt into action and was able to offer space for the major exhibitors to come down to the South Coast. It is a show that can really tap into the enthusiasm of people thinking of getting into boating once the weather is warming up as well as having a lot to offer those who are well into that years’ sailing season by the start of May. It will also be a great opportunity for the local marine businesses to make contact with the big players with minimum effort to maximum effect.
London Boat Show runs until January 15th 2012.
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