Business View - February 2016 27
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entele base comes from – not just boat sales, but for
all our business,” explains Whowell. “And in 2005, we
had an opportunity to open a store down there, closer
to where our customers are coming from. It’s more of
a satellite location, it’s not a full service marina – it’s
more of a sales focus, a showroom.”
Steele Whowell relates that the recent growth of the
company has been driven by sales, service, and stor-
age. “We have a big facility about a mile away from our
main location, called Cobalt Farms. We just finished
building the last building on that property – it’s a big,
four-rack boat storage facility. It holds 168 boats. That
was a big investment that we just made this past year.
We continue to grow each year and that has led to
more storage and service. We’re constantly looking at
ways to upgrade, make small changes here and there,
be more efficient to better satisfy what our customers
want or are asking for. There are always little things
that we’re tweaking and changing, or upgrading.” Last
spring, the Whowells re-did the Bait Shop, expanding
the previously small deli and snack bar by a factor of
three, and rechristened it the “Surf Shack.” “But the
emphasis, right now,” Steele maintains, “is definitely
on storage and service.”
Tom adds: “One of the things we look at is how to be
better, not necessarily, bigger. If we see opportunities
that are a great fit for us, not just financially, but great
for our employees, great for our customers, we take
that into account with a lot of decisions we make. If we
can satisfy all three, that’s the direction that we tend
to go. It’s not ‘get bigger, just to be bigger.’”
Gordy’s need not worry about getting bigger, and cer-
tainly not about getting better. Over the years, it has
