By Jerome A. Koncel
SkipperBud’s, a family-owned company specializing in boat sales, brokerage, service, storage, and marinas operation, announced in early May that it had acquired Sequoit Harbor, a 208-slip marina in Antioch, Illinois, just south of the Illinois/Wisconsin border. A few weeks later, it announced the acquisition of a service center near its Pewaukee, Wisconsin, SuperCenter.
The importance of these acquisitions should not be understated. Both acquisitions strengthen the company’s roots in the Midwest and its reputation for identifying customers’ needs, developing businesses to meet those needs, and seamlessly serving existing and new customers even in the midst of these changes.
Easy Transitions
SkipperBud’s has been around for more than 50 years, having started operations in 1959. Throughout its many years in the marine industry, the company has grown and expanded, now serving boaters with locations in seven states. Through all these changes, SkipperBud’s has never lost its mission focus of “Delivering the boating dream.” This is certainly apparent in it recent acquisitions and in its brokerage business.
Sequoit Harbor has been an Antioch landmark for more than five decades, serving marine customers on the Fox Chain O’ Lakes. Terry Upton, the marina’s previous owner, had built an outstanding business with 208 wet slips, a fuel dock, boat launch ramps, and a travel lift and hoist for pulling boats in and out of the water. In addition, Sequoit Harbor had a 15,000 square foot showroom and a 10,000 square foot service center.
Because Upton and Sequoit Harbor serve so many boaters, SkipperBud’s wanted to make its acquisition a seamless transition. It worked with Upton to make sure that customers knew about the change of ownership, but added that it would not mean any changes to their boating lifestyles. The marina would stay open for business, and SkipperBud’s hired all Sequoit Harbor personnel and used their knowledge and experience to insure an easy transition for existing customers.
SkipperBud’s—Sequoit Harbor is now offering northern Lake County boaters an “all in one” shopping experience where they can purchase their vessels, get a dock slip, and be assured outstanding repair services. For SkipperBud’s, it’s important to stress continuity. The only changes SkipperBud’s plans for Sequoit Harbor are a new showroom, more storage buildings, and a dry stack facility for year-round indoor storage.
The service center it bought in Pewaukee is another example of how SkipperBud’s continues to fulfill the boaters’ dream. In this case, there is a growing number of boaters in the Lake Country of Northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin, and every boater wants to be on the water as much as possible during the all too short boating season. When their boats need to be repaired, it’s very important for them to have a nearby repair center that employs high-quality, experienced technicians that do the job right expeditiously. It found that its existing service center could not handle the growing number of boaters in the area, so it bought the nearby service center with six service bays, a parts department, a customer lounge, and ample parking.
SkipperBud’s continues to play a major role in the Midwest boating community because of its dynamic array of products offered. The move to expand storage and service facilities allows boaters more flexibility and faster turn-around with upgrades, maintenance, and repair. “We are selling more than 2,500 boats per year and we have 6,000 slip and storage clients who rely on us for summer and/or winter services. The expansion plan for our service and storage business needed to be everyone’s main focus,” said Betsey Arvai, marketing manager.
Sequoit Harbor
For SkipperBud’s, delivering the boaters’ dream means making it easy to own, maintain, and service their boats, which is the concept behind SkipperBud’s Super Centers. But don’t forget the first step in the process, having the boats on hand that boaters want to own and sell. Brokerage is big business for the company.
“When it comes to boats Great Lakes boaters want and sell, there’s not a lot of changes in the marketplace,” said Arvai. “The hot sellers are pontoons and jetboats. We’re seeing boats less than 25 feet and more than 40 feet selling quite well, but we could use more sales of mid-size cruisers, that is, the 30- to 35-footers.”
Pontoons have been a big seller for a number of years, according to Arvai, and it’s due to their multi-functionality. People can take their family out for a day on the water in a pontoon, and they can also use it for waterskiing. “The pontoon’s versatility, power, and size make boaters want to own it,” Arvai noted.
If there’s one demographic group that is receiving a lot of attention from SkipperBud’s and other dealerships across the country, it’s millennials. “We need to change the way we market to this group so that they can be more familiar with the joys of the boating lifestyle,” said Arvai.
Toward that goal, SkipperBud’s is trying to reach millennials through social media, videos, texting, and so forth. “We’re on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites that millennials frequent,” said Arvai.
One area where there has not been a lot of change in recent years is the demands of recreational boaters and sportsfishermen. The demands from boaters are no different today than they were 5,10, even 20 years ago, Arvai noted. “Boaters want a salesperson they can trust, a service tech who is knowledgeable and can do the job right the first time, and a dealer who can help them enjoy the boating lifestyle,” she added.
The future
For the many marine-related businesses that SkipperBud’s finds itself immersed in these days, it has a very positive outlook about the future. Don’t be surprised to hear about more SkipperBud’s expansion very soon.
“In general, the industry has made a nice comeback from the Great Recession of 2008-2009,” said Arvai. “At the same, I would say that those companies that invested in their staffs, strengthened their sales and marketing approaches, and added knowledgeable salespersons and technicians are showing the best signs of the recovery.”
That’s a good description of SkipperBud’s and why it sees a rosy future.
