MarineCo: ‘Fishing boats can’t afford to have engine failures’

The UK’s fishing and marine industry is a vital and tough sector that Witham are proud to be involved in. One of our long-standing customers in this arena is  MarineCo. It’s Managing Director, Chris Dinham, kindly reflects in his own words on their business and how they have grown with just a little drop of help from Witham Group…

“MarineCo has been a customer of Witham Group for twenty of its one hundred years, and like an old man who meets and marries a pretty girl we can say “we wish we met you earlier”! Witham is a strong brand with wonderful old fashioned family values and we at MarineCo like to think customers in our market feel  the same about us.

MarineCo was formed in the early 1970’s as a 2nd tier co-operative, owned and run by fishermen’s co-operatives in Scotland. It’s job was to act as a buying agent for these geographically scattered businesses, who supplied commercial fishing gear. There was some success at first, but it became apparent that this market segment was too narrow to support the business and its ambitions. A crossroads had been reached and recognising the lack of expertise in this field, one option was to continue but recruit a new manager who could develop a strategy.

This is how I joined the company in 1987, moving from Penzance in Cornwall where I was a depot manager for the leading fishing gear firm called Bridport  Gundry ,which I had joined after completing a BSc in Fishery Science at Plymouth University. MarineCo was based in Dunfermline Fife. I still remember my first day well, I had arrived on the overnight sleeper train from Penzance leaving behind my wife and 18-month-old baby to pack up the house (she never forgave me). I arrived at the tiny office, was given a set of car keys and a desk and told to get on with it – no-one, not least me had a clue what I was supposed to do!”

I had only ever been to Scotland once on a week’s holiday and had no idea of the geography – first stop was Menzies for a map of Scotland (the entire customer base was in Scotland) and then it was on the road – for months – whilst I tried to understand what we were meant to be doing, how relevant we were to our  customers and suppliers and how we could move forward. We have had an interesting journey from those early days and I still remember with fondness the  excitement of what we were trying to do – leaving home on Sunday afternoon whatever the weather – to get a head start on the week because the distances  were so great, sometimes driving all night on the return – oh to be young again.

“It became apparent that to succeed we had to become bigger and be able to buy in bulk, we scrimped and saved and eventually built a new warehouse in Dunfermline. Then an opportunity came to represent a major Danish Manufacturer, but we needed to have a depot in Peterhead, then we saw an opportunity back in my old neck of the woods and we opened a depot in Looe, Cornwall. Now I was never at home, the M6 became my second home. Eventually, not needing our premises in Dunfermline we sold this and expanded down south, allowing me to relocate to my beloved Cornwall. After a few more moves we were lucky to be able to buy our current 1.25-acre site in Saltash which coincided with a compulsory purchase of our property in Peterhead to facilitate the new harbour development. We were now well established with customers all over the UK and beyond and the site has allowed us to recently build an additional  high-volume warehouse of 10,000 sq. feet to add to our existing 7500. I would like to say we will never move again!

I work in a fantastic industry and despite all the problems that it faces it keeps bouncing back, fishermen are incredibly resilient, awkward, pig headed and stubborn of course, that’s how they have to be to survive, but they are a special breed and I have known many of my customers for 40 years, and have watched their children grow up and see them now running these businesses, sadly my own children, who always worked here during their holidays decided there were  easier ways to make a living and both went off to London after University!”

We work hard at building relationships, its not only customers that we have had for a long time – we aim to become partners with our suppliers, selecting  firms that we can work with for many years, we are never looking for the ‘quick buck’ but aim to build trust and respect that carries you through difficult times,  we consider our customers and our suppliers as friends and it is working with these wonderful people that makes you get out of bed in the morning.

When, some 20 years ago we decided that oil could be a useful additional product for us we recruited an old friend Dougie Jack who had recently retired from Castrol. Dougie researched the market and settled on Witham as a likely partner, he could not have done better! Witham could blend to any exacting standard  required – fishing boats cannot have engine or hydraulic failures far from land and down time can be the killer for these businesses. Witham understands this  and goes beyond the norm in technical backup and consistent quality.

2020 was a most difficult year – our industry almost stopped, but not quite – and we struggled through, we were in the process of building our new warehouse  and this too was impacted as some of the building team had covid lockdowns and supply shortages. As we came out of that we were immediately faced with  Brexit challenges and these things together are still having a big impact on our industry. My old fishing skipper, Bernie Thomas was a wonderful inspiration to me when I was in my 20’s, he was so dynamic, a really clever fisherman and a wonderful family man, he treated me like a son including the odd thick ear! I saw this man practically destroyed when his boat sank, but drag himself back from the brink through sheer determination and hard work – a great lesson for a  cocky 20-year-old and one that I hope I have adopted, we will come back from the gloom of 2020.

I’m getting old now and soon someone with youth and vigour will need to take my place – perhaps with me in the background or perhaps not, we shall see. I  am very proud of what we have done, our new warehouse is absolutely state of the art and gives the business a fantastic launch pad for the future. Everything  we have done we have done with integrity, honesty and care, as I once said ‘reputation is everything’. We don’t get everything right of course, but I like to think we try!”

To find out more about the support and products we offer to the marine sector, click here.