A look at the new Marine Connection

Calling it “the right place at the right time,” Danny Goldenberg and partner John Kutuk purchased Palm Beach, Fla.’s Marine Connection two months ago and are currently working to grow the dealership’s presence in the South Florida market.

The new owners, who became boat dealers in 2006 when they formed Super Boats & Yachts LLC in Fort Lauderdale to sell brokerage and used vessels, have now moved their operations to the Palm Beach facility and will work from there under the Marine Connection name.

The dealership will carry three engine brands – Mercury, Yamaha and Suzuki – and two boat lines, Stingray and Glasstream, at least for the time being.

“We’re getting a lot of inquiries from other manufacturers and maybe in the coming years we can pick up more lines,” Goldenberg says.

The new owners of Marine Connection met former owner Mark Lasilla a few years ago and their businesses soon started working together. With the onset of the financial crisis, Super Boats & Yachts found itself selling mostly bank boats, as well as brokered boats overseas – areas of brisk business for Marine Connection as well.

Super Boats eventually began buying some of Marine Connection’s used boats and remarketing them. Because of that relationship, when Lasilla decided to sell his dealership, it made sense that Goldenberg and Kutuk, who were looking to expand, bought him out. The move allowed the new owners to transition into new boat sales but avoid having to start from scratch in the process.

“We were doing used boat sales and we did it very well, and we gained a lot of resources from that business,” Goldenberg says. “Now we can shift some of our resources to new boats, where there’s not as much competition. So that’s the main thing. We’re also utilizing Marine Connection’s reputation. They were very strong at new boat sales, and we’re still getting help from the previous owners, so it works out pretty good.”

The new owners inherit a long list of customers – Marine Connection has sold more than 6,000 new and used boats domestically since it was founded in 1987 and another 8,000 overseas – as well as a substantial brick-and-mortar location.

“You don’t see many independent boat dealers with an air-conditioned showroom and enclosed service bays in South Florida nowadays,” Goldenberg says. “Maybe you have MarineMax, they’re corporate, open to the public, a huge corporation. But we have a facility of that caliber.”

Although many dealerships are still working to recover from the downturn and might not be inclined to think about expansion at present, Goldenberg believes now is the perfect time.

“I think, first of all, there’s going to be a recovery in all sectors in 2011 and 2012,” he says. “But more importantly, why I wanted to do this at this point is that so many boat dealers went out of business and manufacturing plants closed down, and I think this is a good opportunity because the dealers that are reliable and the dealers that are in this business for the long haul, now they have more power.

“The manufacturers want to keep them, they offer good incentives to them. To be honest, I wouldn’t want to go into this business in a big scale in a booming time because then there’s so much competition. I think this is a better time for us.”

Goldenberg points to the stabilization of the housing market as one encouraging development.

Marine Connection is also working with Priority One and is signed up with seven lenders through that arrangement. Goldenberg says he talks with the financial service provider every day and has heard that it is becoming easier to give boat loans – to people with good credit – than it was during the depths of the downturn. This gives him confidence that Marine Connection will be able to sell boats and get its customers financed.

He believes people have learned the lessons of the last few years after either being hurt financially or watching others struggle. And they will make better decisions regarding loans and how they spend their money, he predicts, which should help avoid another bubble that causes everything to come crashing down once again.

With that optimism in mind, don’t be surprised if Marine Connection is soon on the expansion path once again.

“We live in Miami and we had our previous location in Fort Lauderdale, and now we’re in Palm Beach,” Goldenberg says. “But we know the power of Miami and we might go to Miami in the near future with another location.

“We are relatively young in the industry, we have a lot of energy and we will be growing in the coming years. South Florida boaters will hear more about us in the future.”

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