Business View Magazine | May/June 2022

56 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 5 The five attractive showrooms on the premises are divided into different categories of boats. These include salt water craft, deck boats, pontoons, jet skis, and pre-owned. The division of model types helps sales personnel locate stock easily and efficiently and gives the consumer a great opportunity to compare. While the world might be migrating to selling online, the boating industry is still predominantly operating in-person on showroom floors. Martin suggests, “One main reason for the apprehension of switching to an online platform is that many boat manufacturers don’t want to list their new boat prices for everyone to see.” That being said, Chatlee Boat & Marine does operate a website to showcase their available inventory. Currently, the company stocks a variety of top brands including Avid (a new aluminum line), Bulls Bay, Carolina Skiff, Hurricane, Sea Hunt, South Bay, Stingray, Suzuki Marine, Sweetwater, Yamaha Watercraft, and Yamaha Marine – in addition to a wide variety of pre-owned makes and models. A point of pride: Chatlee Boat & Marine is one of the largest dealers in the country for Sea Hunt, Carolina Skiff, Stingray Boats and Suzuki Outboards. As you’d imagine with such a great reputation and the popularity of the internet, Chatlee attract clients from across the U.S. and beyond. “Chatlee Boats & Marine sells up and down the East Coast, and has sold boats all the way from Maine to Texas,” says Martin. “We’ve also sold boats in Canada, and a few in California. Although, Chatlee sells boats up and down the East Coast most of our stock lands North Carolina.” While the supply chain issue has affected many elements of operations at the company, the service department has been fortunate to keep parts rolling in to complete yearly maintenance services on time. This could, in part, be due to the fact that most of the technicians have been with the company for years. Martin reports, “What differentiates us from other companies is we