Decades on the water and still buoyant


Walcon Marine is the market leader in marina construction, design and installation, yacht harbour construction projects, working harbours, and berthing facilities. A worldwide operation, it provides a full range of project management services and its products can be found on five continents. Sue Hughes met MD James Walters


Remaining buoyant over the years, Walcon Marine is a highly successful family company founded in 1963 by chairman Robin Walters. In 1972, he and his team were tasked with supplying pontoons and bridges for the first Southampton Boat Show. Today the company is committed to UK manufacturing and continues to play a major role in the leisure marine industry.


Based near Fareham with easy access to the South Coast, Walcon produces the highest-quality marinas, working harbours and yacht harbours. It is fortunate to have weathered the recession, remaining pretty static with around 50 employees, 16 of whom are office based, with a handful at the Woolston yard and four on the piling rig.


It is an interesting mix, not fully ’marine’, neither fully ’construction’ by sector, yet its current turnover of £7.5-8 million makes it a solid global player in the marine sector.


Walters senior, a chartered civil engineer, was one of the original pioneers behind large scale marinas in this country and abroad. He has combined his love of sailing and travel and his professional expertise to develop and promote his products worldwide. His son achieved his MEng in civil engineering in 1988 and spent four years gaining experience as a projects manager in the construction industry before joining the family business in 1992.


However, James Walters’ experience goes back a long way, to school holidays spent making pontoons and floats, literally the nuts and bolts of numerous boat shows: “It was invaluable experience and the staff saw I didn’t mind hard work while I learned how things were done. Many of the guys I worked with are still here.“


Walters describes himself as a ’hands-on’ MD, but an invaluable legacy of the construction industry was that he learned pricing. When his father said (or rather hinted) “we are recruiting“ it was an ideal opportunity for him to come into the business as a projects manager. “I thought it would be an easier life than pure contracting, but it wasn’t. However I completed jobs and began to understand how the business runs.“


Walters has not grown the company to a huge degree: “We are not trying to take on the world. The whole ethos of the company is one of friendly professionalism, with a desire to provide a uniquely comprehensive service from initial consultation to finished product. We operate in a small market and are famous for saying ’this is the price’ – we rarely change it. We treat customers as we would like to be treated.“


The impact of technology and product innovation is interesting. Walters admits he could improve materials and colours, but with style comes the cost issue. “We’ve made some tweaks to the aluminium product and it allows us to bolt on fenders and adjust for different sizes of vessel. It looks nicer, but cost is down to volume.


“Timber decking was the norm 25 to 30 years ago and remains


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my personal favourite, but many clients want composite or non-slip grating. One thing that we have noticed is that marina operators strive to provide more services, such as Wi-Fi as well as electricity, water and CCTV. A lot of the innovation is in the bolt-on bits with clients driving innovation.“


Each yacht harbour or marina construction project is an individual contract that demands specific design requirements. Walcon provides uniquely tailored design services for yacht harbours, marinas, pontoons, berthing and access bridges. Its solution to Premier Marina’s Swanwick requirements for a new boat lift and dry stack has been to incorporate a bridge as part of the project, as well as special fixings for fuel dispensers. At nearby Gosport, a bigger berth was needed for the Clipper fleet and a replacement for an old pier. Walcon played around with the layout to ensure greatly improved protection from wind direction via


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the installation of a small concrete breakwater.


The ability to undertake its own piling has proved instrumental in project completion. Walcon used to subcontract this, but building the bespoke Walcon Wizard makes all the difference when a tender is won and components shipped eight to 10 weeks later, as this unique asset can be rapidly deployed to sink piles.


International partners have come and gone, most recently in Australia, which proved too hard to manage due to distance, however Walcon’s interests there were sold as a going concern and are managed by the company’s Chinese licensee, which is closer than the UK. Walcon is doing well in the Dutch market and currently growing its presence in Belgium.


Walters learned from the Australian experience: “We gave it our best shot, but could not compromise our core UK business, whereas for southern Europe, we can make product here where manufacturing costs are lower.“


For someone who used to race a lot, Walters has found himself shipping his teenage children around the UK for competitive sailing events, their love of sailing testament to how another generation is taking to the water.


Walters regards the Solent marine sector as particularly strong. “Two good summers have really helped the marine industry and I believe boat salesmen are talking to people with genuine interest in buying a boat. We are not a barometer for the economic situation, but the marine sector is good and we’ve been really busy.“


Pretty shipshape indeed.


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