WorldMarina

Issue 117

www.marinawor ld.com

January/February 2020

Essential reading for marina and waterfront developers, planners and operators

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Passion, commitment and hard workA lot can happen in quarter of a century. Marinetek co-founders and directors Ilkka Seppälä and Markku Rantanen reflect upon 25 years and, in tandem with president and CEO Mika Parviainen, look to the future. Carol Fulford listens in.

Many friends get together to dream up business ventures. Most are

by instinct. “If you share experience and discuss different things you become open to different ways of achieving things,” he explains.

Both cut their teeth in the pontoon business at now-defunct Finnish company Byratek, designing and selling off-the-shelf pontoons for the domestic market. “Everything came from a product catalogue,” says Seppälä, “whereas our business plan was to offer customised products – selling a solution and not just pontoons priced by the square metre.” They also looked beyond Finland’s borders. “Our first project was a breakwater in Holland. This was followed by deliveries to the UK and Germany. But we kept a close eye on

the domestic market,” he confirms. Rantanen interjects to emphasise that marketing was also important from day one. “We built up our name carefully until it became a brand.”

By 1997 Marinetek was market leader in Finland for pontoons and breakwaters, and the market was booming. “We’d moved from rented factory space and invested in a 3,400m² [36,597ft²] factory in Vantaa as well as extra offices off site,” Seppälä notes. “This put us in a perfect position when it became municipal policy to build marinas everywhere. We also started the Villa pontoon range so as to capture the private sector. We became market leader and remain so – for both.”

New marketsIn order to continue to build its export business, Marinetek started to sell licences but, over time, realised that, while sub-contractors were of value for some projects, keeping in-house control of production was in most cases a better business model. Today, Marinetek has nine factories in key locations, half of which are wholly owned, and half are used subject to contract. This gives the company production capacity in its main business markets of northern Europe, southern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North America, and follows its determination

to expand into selective markets with a splash rather than a mere ripple.

Securing the contract for The Palm Jumeirah in the UAE as a first Middle East project and Palm Harbor, Florida as a first US reference is impressive by any standards. “Palm Jumeirah took six years to build and was a big learning curve,” Seppälä admits. “But this reference - along with Palm Harbor - opened up markets around the world. I truly believe that these two

MARINETEK: 25 YEARS

Securing the contract for The Palm Jumeirah marinas in the UAE significantly helped Marinetek to broaden its global reach.

Friends and business partners, Ilkka Seppälä (left) and Markku Rantanen have worked together to realise an ambition to sell marina solutions worldwide.

abandoned; some come to fruition; and a few thrive. The true test is to maintain both business-based friendship and friendship-based business. “We’re not just friends but brothers,” says Seppälä, glancing at Rantanen with a smile that reaches his eyes. “We’ve always worked together – Markku’s a sounding post and a soul mate,” he adds. Rantanen is a listener

Mika Parviainen, president and CEO: “We have high ambitions to grow globally.”

Porto Carras in Halkidiki is the largest marina in northern

Greece and is one of the leading megayacht destinations in the

eastern Mediterranean. Marinetek delivered the marina system in 2003

to Technical Olympic.

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references gave Marinetek the strength and reputation that it has today.”

The door that opened into the USA brought a further focus; that of personalities. “This was the contract that really taught me how important people are,” Seppälä recalls, reflecting on his conversations with David Chase of the Chase family, private owners of Palm Harbor. Rantanen picks up here. “We’ve been successful because we worked to make the contacts,” he asserts. “It’s important to give people proper answers, to make them feel confident that they are dealing with people who know what they’re talking about. They need honest answers.”

New focusIn 25 years a company can turn full circle, absorbing a lot of experience on the journey. Although starting out as a provider of pontoons and breakwaters, the directors re-invented the Marinetek brand as the expert for ‘floating solutions’. The company was successfully and actively involved in floating homes and other floating structures, such as swimming pools, and also bought into marinas as owners/operators. In 2018 there was a re-think. “We realised we should be focusing on being a marina builder and that being a floating solutions provider was a distraction,” Rantanen admits. “It was a good pioneering experience but not our core business.”

Enter Mika Parviainen, bringing CEO-level international project management experience to the table, along with whirlwind energy to restore the focus and lead the company to the next level.

“We made a strategic decision to exit from marina ownership/operations and also created a franchising arrangement for Bluet Oy, our floating swimming arena and floating home partner, whereby we are only involved in supplying the flotation products,” he confirms. “These business arenas need a different model of operation, different people etc. We want to focus on what we do best – to design and build strong marinas.”

Parviainen, appointed as president and CEO in April 2018, set out to better streamline the business at management level. “We have high ambitions to grow globally,” he stresses. “Although we had managers in other countries or regions, like Croatia and the Middle East, the overall management was very much Helsinki-based. We’ve brought the managers of our five key business regions more closely into the fold. In a sense, our company headquarters is not a place any more but a group of people with specialist local knowledge of our markets.” He has also concentrated on talking to customers and discussing

their expectations, and confirms that the new back-to-roots business focus is bringing results. “It’s the way forward.”

For him, the future emphasis will be on continuing in-house engineering and project management and establishing a stronghold in the western Mediterranean; up for possible discussion with potential partners. In the meantime, he expects particular growth in the US/Caribbean in the short term and inevitable growth in Southeast Asia and the Far East as part of longer term strategies. Without a doubt, there will be notable projects in the future mix as has been the case to date. Seppälä cites The Palm Jumeirah as the company’s most significant contract and, as a global industry icon that can be viewed from space, it’s hard to beat. Rantanen is unsurprised by Seppälä’s choice while giving his vote to Aker Brygge, Norway with special mentions to Limassol Marina, Cyprus and Porto Carras in Greece.

The ultimate vote, however, goes to a team that for 25 years has upheld the Marinetek values of ‘passion, commitment and hard work’.

“You have to love what you do and what you want; and we wanted to be the best and the biggest in Europe,” Seppälä says. Rantanen nods and flashes an elvish grin. “The best, yes! But we’re not arrogant,” he stresses. “We are just professionals.”

MARINETEK: 25 YEARS

Marinetek has more than 2,000 marina references and has delivered projects in 52 countries. The company specialises in concrete pontoons and breakwaters and also offers marina systems in steel, aluminium and timber.

Palm Harbor Marina in West Palm Beach, Florida offers slips for vessels up to 250 feet (76m) at docks delivered by Marinetek North America.

Located in the heart of Oslo’s most vibrant social centre, the marina of Aker Brygge

is now a highly popular Norwegian guest harbour.