Beesley’s Point Sea-Doo – Marmora, NJ – Oct. 20, 2003
CONTACT
912 Route US 9 North (North Shore Road)
Marmora, NJ 08223
609/390-1113
www.beesleyspointseadoo.com
OWNERS
The Innocente Family
BUSINESS PROFILE
4,000-sq.-ft. dealership founded in 1989 on five acres, right on the water. Carries Sea-Doo PWC and jet boats, plus Jet Dock and Connect-a-Dock products. Offers rentals and rack storage. “Customers give us an hour’s notice, and when they get here their machine is on the beach,” says Joe Innocente. “When they return from riding, we fill it, flush it and fog it, cover it back up, and put it on the rack.” 30 employees.
GREATEST CONCERN
“I’m always concerned about a glut of inventory like we had in 1996, 1997, and 1998,” says Innocente. “It took us right to the edge.” Is the atmosphere better now? “Absolutely. And the four-stroke units seem to be great.”
WHAT’S HOT?
When we spoke, Beesley’s was sold out of watercraft. Innocente said the Supercharged GTX 4-TEC has been the bestseller. “We sell a lot of Sea-Doo life jackets, but not too many other Sea-Doo accessories.”
CUSTOMER BUYING TRENDS
Innocente says the dealership caters “mainly to the Philadelphia crowd — professionals who have a house at the shore. These are more affluent customers.”
ANTI-POWERSPORTS ISSUES
Innocente says a bill has been introduced calling for boating licenses. “That’s good; I agree with that. Next year, everyone age 35 and under would need a boating license, for any boat — not just watercraft — and it would go to 45 and under the following year, then everybody else the third year. People in New Jersey are starting to get on board; classes are even offered in schools.
“But now they’re trying to require renters to have a boating license. (That could) put our rental department out of business. Yet I heard that PWC accidents are way down. Out of 74 accidents, only 12 involved watercraft.”
PARTS AND SERVICE
Beesley’s has two full-time parts salespeople and seven folks in service. His techs have taken Sea-Doo’s training and most have worked at the shop seven or eight years. “We keep expanding our parts room because we do a tremendous volume, thousands of boats each year.”
WORDS OF ADVICE
“Don’t jump in with both feet and go crazy until you have gotten established and have figured out what’s going on,” advises Innocente. “A lot of times guys get into this business, order a bunch of machines, equipment, and parts, yet don’t have a clue what they’re doing. All they do is run in circles and they’re out of business two years later.”
