Twenty years ago I was working a boat
show and a competitor was offering a
“free” pontoon ladder with every boat
sale. The pontoon ladder we sold we
bought from our boat manufacturer at a
cost of $200. Our competitor bought a
cheaper ladder from a dock manufacturer,
at a cost of about $75. To compete at
the show we had to give away a pontoon
ladder that cost us an extra $125. After
the show I contacted dock manufacturers
and secured a supply of ladders. We
bought dock ladders for about $75, and
sold them to boat dealers as pontoon
ladders for $100. Sales went well but we
ran into supply problems. We were
selling more ladders than we could get.
The dock companies whom we bought from
only wanted to build ladders in the
winter. They could build more profitable
items in the spring. We were buying from
two suppliers but still we sold more
dock/pontoon ladders than we could get.
Our major supplier told us that the
ladder business wasn’t profitable and
they quit making dock ladders. A metal
fabricator in Indiana built us
pontoon/dock ladders, but we were
never able to build adequate inventory.
We were selling 800 pontoon or dock
ladders but always ran out in August. We
made the financial commitment to buy
1000 dock ladders from a company in
Minnesota only to discover that the
company went bankrupt. We lost our
deposit and didn’t receive a single
pontoon or dock ladder. To secure the
kind of inventory we needed, we realized
we have to build them ourselves or go
offshore. We were leery about buying
dock ladders made overseas, but If
you're knowledgeable about the product
you can develop specifications for a
quality product. Our initial foreign
supplier sent us a sample of a dock
ladder they were selling to other
companies in the states. It was junk and
we rejected it. We wanted dock or
pontoon ladders at a good price but
demanded a quality product. We specified
the aluminum tube strength, we specified
the two bar top support, strong
stainless steel J hooks, fluted aluminum
to help hide scratches, satin finish
anodizing, etc. Our foreign supplier
told us that they could build quality
pontoon ladders but that most USA
companies just wanted the cheapest
possible product. It sounds
almost funny to say, but we open the
boxes and look inside. If we find bad
welds or bad anodizing or hardware
shortages, we reject the ladders.
Because our supplier knows we know about
dock ladders and inspect the product,
they are a little extra careful with
what they send us. Most of the ladders
sold on the internet are drop shipped
from a manufacturer or a distributor and
the seller has never seen the product.
Although most sellers wouldn’t know bad
welds or anodizing if they saw it. We
discovered that stainless hardware was
almost 50% less overseas. Many of the
dock ladders we had sold in the past
(made in the USA) had cadmium plated
hardware and mounting kits because it
was cheaper. The USA companies knew cad
plated wasn’t as good as stainless but
it would take several years to rust.
Imported dock and pontoon ladders built
to our specifications have stainless and
we discovered that the difference
between a junk dock ladder and a quality
product is only a few dollars. Our
competitors still sell the cheapest dock
ladders we rejected six years ago, with
single bar top support and cad plated
hardware. Today the retail price of a
traditional pontoon or dock ladder has
dropped almost 40%. We are now selling
ladders to the dock manufacturers whom
we used to buy from. With our ladders,
you get a superior product with twenty
years of ladder design and engineering.
Very simply put, we know dock ladders and
for a few dollars difference, we only
sell a quality product. |
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We ship from
stock. Fed Ex orders in by noon usually
ship the same day.
Truck freight orders ship within two
days (freight lines sometimes don’t come
the same day). |
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