Business View Magazine
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parts side with its infinitely broad market – meaning
the entire planet,” he continues. “We can’t readily sell
a new ski boat to California or Alaska, but we can cer-
tainly sell a set of spark plugs with no problem and get
it there within two days. Having that much reach and
having that much potential for future growth – it really
doesn’t have a cap. I can set theoretical caps, easily,
on the boat dealership side, but there is no limit to the
internet side – we’ve seen that with all kinds of very
successful internet companies.”
deAndrade says that he would also like to see the
parts division of the business grow in order to help
bring that money back into the local economy. “We
are in a remote location,” he explains. “We’re in the
third poorest county of our state. It’s amazing we even
sell these luxury speed boats out of here. There’s not
much industry in our area, so if we can be successful
and expand – I’m not putting any limit on what the fu-
ture may hold and how many people we can employ,”
he adds, hopefully.
Adapting its business model when necessary has set
White Lake Marine firmly on its future course. “I don’t
think my father ever imagined we wouldn’t just be sell-
ing or servicing boats, but we’d have an international
website, shipping parts all over the world,” deAndrade
says. “I don’t think that was ever envisioned at any
time prior to us actually doing it. It’s different from our
core business, but it’s related; it complements it. It let
us use a skill set that we had in our core business and
expand that to a totally new marketplace.”
Sixty years of integrity-based customer service wed-
ded to a survivor’s ability to change course when the
currents of the marketplace turned upstream, is how
White Lake Marine survived the Great Recession -and
came out even strong on the other side. But David
deAndrade is modest about taking more than just a
small share of the credit. “We’ve been blessed enough
to stay in business and be successful,” is all he has
left to say.
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