Barletta Pontoon Boats passes hiring, invoicing milestones
Barletta Pontoon Boats, a brand new pontoon boat company located in Bristol, Ind, recently surpassed two “century” marks in it’s still very young history of operations.
The company hired its 100th team member during the second week of April, and then the following week invoiced its100th pontoon boat.
Incorporated in June 2017, and beginning actual boat production in late December 2017, Barletta has quickly answered the call of both pontoon boat dealers and customers alike.
With an aggressive goal of building 1,000 boats in calendar year 2018, Barletta was forced to truncate what many believed would be a long product development and launch cycle, while at the same time hiring a workforce that would fit the philosophy of Bill Fenech, president and co-owner.
“There are many in this industry – competing manufacturers, dealers, and vendor partners – that said it couldn’t be done,” Fenech said. “I would be lying if I said that this team didn’t use that as ‘bulletin-board material’ to push harder and faster.”
According to Fenech, what’s most impressive is that the team not only achieved its goal of having units in the field by January 2018, but did so without sacrificing core values as a manufacturer.
“We didn’t build just another ‘copy-cat, me-too’ pontoon boat – we built the pontoon boat that we wanted to build. Every piece of our pontoon boats was a conscious decision with the end-user’s on-water experience in mind,” Fenech said. “One thousand boats is absolutely an aggressive goal, but not unreachable. “We have an incredibly dedicated and passionate team, who support and are supported by, one of the best dealer networks in the country. The synergy we have created so early in our lifecycle is awe-inspiring and humbling to say the least.”
How is your Pontoon different from the Competition in quality ?
Had the chance to view two different pontoons by this manufacturer at the Chicago boat and RV show and the Fort Wayne Show. In Chicago Mr. Fenech was there and he kept talking about the flaws of the model and how the quality has to be brought up to meet his standards but they had to hurry to meet the timeline for boat show season which tells me they’re likely cutting corners to meet there quantity roll out as well. Further at the visit we wanted to talk about the brand and possibly becoming a dealer and though he wasn’t truly busy or involved at the moment he sat down in the boat and put his legs up and seemingly refused to come over and talk “business” after his assistant informed him we were there. In Fort Wayne we learned a bit more and their pontoon is only different in the sense that they’re installing yeti cup holders and a dog food and water dish, definitely not a game changer in the industry.