Over the last few years, we have gone through huge growth as a business. Our growth includes going from a team of 8 to a team of 40, expansion of offices, multiple new workshops, new brands, new dealerships, new service offerings and the list goes on.
The exciting part about this growth is that it’s not just an expansion on who we were, it’s an evolution of Short Marine.
We started as a service business and that will always be at the core of what we do. People don’t want owning a boat to be a chore, they want it to be easy, because depending on whether its easy or not is often the difference between someone enjoying boating their whole life vs someone not using their boat, selling it and getting out of boating all together.
Our vision is to make boating easy and enjoyable, so our customers can spend more quality time on the water enjoying their boats and creating lifelong memories with the people they love, because that’s what life is all about. In order to make boating easy and enjoyable, we identified the need to be able to offer an in-house, end-to-end solution for all things boating. It’s something no other boat dealership offers and it’s why we believe ‘owning a boat’ often has a negative association to it.
Traditionally, marine businesses fall into 1 of 6 categories. They’re either; Sales, Mechanical, Electrical, Shipwright, Detailing or Slipway Services. Looking at this, it’s clear to see the huge disconnect between the person someone buys their boat from, to the people that service the engine, to the people who keep it clean, to the people who repair any damage, to the people who haul it out of the water for antifouling, to the people who rectify any electrical issues, and so on. This can make scheduling services, coordinating different trades and managing the quality of work a time consuming, and frustrating task; when boating shouldn’t be that way. It’s no wonder the age-old saying of “the two best days of a boat owners life are the day they buy it and the day they sell it” exists.
However when done right, we believe there is no better activity in the world than boating. Particularly when it comes to connecting with friends and family and creating lifelong memories; the two most important things in life. The key is to ensure it’s ‘done right’ and that’s why we’re here; to make boating easy, and to make it enjoyable.
The next step for us is to continue to focus on how we can achieve our mission of delivering the best boating experience in the world. The recipe to success is quite simple, to partner the worlds best service with the worlds best boats. So as we continue to look at ways we can improve and innovate on the level of service we deliver, we will also look to add to our portfolio of boats by securing dealerships of the worlds best boats in each of the major boating categories.
So that’s the story behind the evolution of Short Marine. Where we’ve come from, where we are now, where we’re going and why we’re doing it. Boating and enjoying life are our two passions and our goal is to build a business that enables us to share that passion with as many people as possible.
Happy boating and remember life is short…..enjoy it!
Sam & Ryan Short
