Masters of their craft

By ROBIN BAILEY

It was hardly an auspicious start to a marine export venture. Four rigid inflatable boats airfreighted to Vancouver, stacked on the back of a rented pickup and driven across the vast reaches of British Columbia and Washington State.

Yet from that leap into the unknown, Paul Goddard, managing director of the West Auckland RIB manufacturer Aquapro International, has built a thriving export business that has developed from a fledgling product-led operation to a thriving market-driven company.

More than 1200 boats are exported every year to the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. The domestic market absorbs 250 boats. Aquapro recently added the SeaCab - the yellow water taxi service on Auckland and Sydney harbours - to its range and is confident of making sales to operators in some of the world's busiest harbours.

Goddard and his team of distributors and dealers work hard to keep the brand before the public. Each year they exhibit at 35 international boat shows, including San Diego, Toronto, Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Miami and Boston. Even the show at Anchorage in Alaska is on the circuit. In the first two weeks of January 2003 alone, Aquapro products will be seen at five shows in North America.

Across the Atlantic the company is at the London Boat Show, Dusseldorf in Germany and Istanbul in Turkey.

The markets like what they see of the Aquapro RIBs, from 2.4m yacht tenders to 14m cabin boats. The US and Australia take 400 each, Canada 200, Europe and the Mediterranean 150.

The company started life on April 1, 1991, with a capital of $1000, offering a repair and maintenance service for inflatable boats. The plan was always to start building inflatables and that happened just five months after it opened the door.

Goddard remembers it as a hand-to-mouth existence. "We would buy one roll of fabric, enough to make six or eight boats. Once we sold them, we bought another roll of fabric. There was never any money to take a salary."

Hulls were all fibreglass in those days. "We needed more production volume so we started building small tenders with aluminium hulls. They were both lighter and faster to build."

Perhaps even more important for a company then growing at 50 per cent a year, they were also cheaper to build and the North Americans, who had seen nothing like them, were showing interest.

Goddard: "By mid-1993 we took the plunge and airfreighted those four boats to Canada and went on tour. Later that year we exhibited in Chicago and the interest was so great we began linking up with dealers, primarily in British Columbia, Washington State and California.

"We concentrated on building the brand by doing shows supported by a bit of advertising. We also took care of the detail that made our products stand out.

"First by eliminating many of the ugly seams that were then a feature of inflatables so that the boats looked clean.

"Then we introduced white handles and rubbing strakes replacing the black, which left scuff marks on white yacht topsides. That sort of detail helped us take off in the US."

Aquapro has learned many lessons during the transition to a market-driven company.

"At first we built what we thought the market wanted. People had a lot of ideas; some worked, some didn't. Then dealers and distributors began providing the feedback that helped keep us in tune with the market."

One such idea, from dealer input via their clients in North America, led to the development of the Euro Deluxe range of yacht tenders from 3.4m to 5.4m.

"Many owners wanted a more stylish tender with a centre console. We took a standard boat, added some seating and developed the hull and now sell 250 a year - a package that can cost from $11,000 for the smallest up to almost $40,000."

Since 1996, Aquapro has averaged a manageable 15 per cent growth a year, although this year it is heading towards 35 per cent.

Goddard again: "We have no trouble selling our boats. The problem is producing them."

Like all sectors of the marine industry these days, Aquapro's problem is finding the right staff.

"In the early days there was no difficulty attracting people who could work with their hands," he says.

"Today, the superyacht glamour end of the industry is attracting all the available skills, leaving production companies like us struggling. If we can get the right people we can train them.

"We could double our export sales if we could build the boats."