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SOLENT SME GROWTH
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Growth on the horizon for Oceanair
Managing director Andy FitzGerald heads-up one of the fastest growing SMEs on the South Coast. While national growth is struggling to reach 2%, his company has seen turnover increase from £8.63 million in 2014 to just over £11m this financial year and is forecasting 20% growth in 2016/17 writes Tracy Nicoll
A remarkable achievement – particularly considering it's an industry FitzGerald says he accidentally stumbled into 25 years ago.
Chichester-based Oceanair is the world's leading manufacturer of marine blinds, flyscreens, shades and soft furnishings and is at the forefront of technology and innovation when it comes to designing and manufacturing bespoke blinds.
Manufacturing is not for the faint-hearted, it has a reputation for being particularly capital- intensive. FitzGerald founded Oceanair with £30,000 capital, £10,000 of which he invested to give a 33% shareholding. He became a sole shareholder in 2014.
“I still struggle with the idea that I am ‘in blinds',” said FitzGerald. “When I set up Oceanair I planned to go into marine air conditioning but for various reasons that didn't happen so was looking for a smaller product to start the business. I knew there was a demand for covering hatches on yachts with something attractive. The perception was no one wanted to pay any money for it but I came from a different perspective. I thought if I design something attractive, regardless of cost, I will be able to sell it and that's pretty much what happened.”
'I used to stress about the competition but they invariably fail as it is all considerably more complicated than it looks'
From humble beginnings in the front room of his home in Cowplain, Oceanair now headquarters from a purpose-built 4000m2 factory in Selsey. From here the company carries out R&D, design, manufacture, assembly and exports around 75% of its products via a worldwide distribution network to more than 35 countries. It employs 200 people, including a team of 30 via its American-based manufacturing operation. A winner of countless awards, including three Queens Awards for Enterprise, and is currently ranked 46 in The Business Magazine's SME Growth Index.
businessmag.co.uk
Luxury, bespoke blinds may be a niche market but Oceanair isn't short of applications for this high-end product. Recent growth is not just attributed to conquering the marine market – it supplies most of the world's leading power and sail boat manufacturers and many of the worlds' superyachts. The company has targeted new markets including luxury homes and commercial properties, both with impressive results.
It was an area previously ruled out as the product was considered too expensive but new machinery (the company recently invested £250,000 in equipment to manufacture venetian blinds) has reduced costs and increased production
Superyacht, commercial and residential projects currently account for around one third of turnover with the luxury residential arm growing significantly since its launch three years ago. This is largely thanks to its expertise in ‘Integration' technology, where lights, blinds, TVs and sound systems are remotely operated via a tablet and mobile- phone App. Its traditional yacht and power boat market accounts for the remaining two thirds.
But this could soon change as the past year has seen the company enter a completely new arena, bringing its luxury interiors to high-end RV's and other recreational vehicles – a market which FitzGerald predicts will be worth around 15% of annual turnover within two years. It was an area previously ruled out as the product was considered too expensive but new machinery (the company recently invested £250,000 in equipment to manufacture venetian blinds) has reduced costs and increased production at a time when Oceanair was approached by manufactures looking to differentiate their vehicles with a unique, luxury product.
FitzGerald makes his business success sound somewhat straightforward but modesty is prevailing as he admits seeing a number of competitors come and go over the years. “I used to stress about the competition but they invariably fail as it is all considerably more complicated than it looks, requiring a very flexible manufacturing base and rather more knowledge in design than copiers understand which is fantastic for us as our customers have a bit more appreciation of our value ,” he said
“I thought I'd created a very safe company; no customer, product or market accounted for more than 10% of turnover but I hadn't planned on the worldwide recession"
It certainly hasn't all been plain sailing as FitzGerald attributes much of his current success to lessons learned in the wake of the 2009 recession, a period which he described as catastrophic for Oceanair. “I thought I'd created a very safe company; no customer, product or market accounted for more than 10% of turnover but I hadn't planned on the worldwide recession. There was a complete implosion of the Marine supply chain, our market collapsed by 80%.” Fitzgerald laid off 70 staff from a 150 workforce. “But out of that came the reshaping of the business which was much more technical, much more engineering based and much more high-end which has set the framework for our more recent successes”.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – JULY/AUGUST 2016
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