Tide on the rise for the boating industry

1:44 AM Tue 17 Mar 2009 GMT

'Maritimo CEO Bill Barry-Cotter - when you’re on the bottom the only way left is up...... - Tide on the rise for boating industry' Bob Wonders Click Here to view large photo

With boat manufacturing making up a healthy percentage o business profit and turnover on the Queensland Gold Coast, one man who keeps his finger firmly on the pulse is Nick Nichols, business editor of the regional newspaper The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Nichols spoke at length last week with Maritimo CEO Bill Barry-Cotter and he liked what the industry veteran had to say.

Barry-Cotter told Nichols he was expecting an upturn in the boating market towards the end of the year.

'The conclusion I have come to over the past three weeks is that, if we are not at the bottom yet, we are very close to it,' Barry-Cotter said. 'We've just finished the Miami International Boat Show and it was a lot more positive than we expected. 'We experienced the same result with the Auckland show and New Zealand at the moment is a very good market for us,' he added.

In October last year, Maritimo announced it would stand down 110 staff.

However, only about 40 have actually gone and those left according to Barry-Cotter are working 'flat out' on the company's new model range.

'We're quite busy at the moment for the number of people on board and the orders are starting to stack up a bit,' Barry-Cotter said.

He agreed that not only for Maritimo, but for all major boat manufacturers a successful Sanctuary Cove show was essential.

'If it's a good show then we'll look seriously at re-hiring people and expand things on the line,' he added.

Those who doubt Barry-Cotter's positive forecast would do well to think back to 1990.

It was the 'recession we had to have' under then PM Paul Keating.

Industry observers at the time described Bill Barry-Cotter as 'crazy' when he invested millions of dollars of his own money into a complete re-vamp of models in the company he owned at the time, Riviera Marine.

The end result was that when a turn around of the industry came no one was better prepared for it than Bill Barry-Cotter and his 'New Generation' range of cruisers.

Let us all hope he's right on the money again.

by Bob Wonders

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Tide on the rise for the boating industry

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