Boat show keeps businesses afloat

[Spiel]

Boat show keeps businesses afloat

 

 

Jan 14, 2010

Bruce Hain / www.innisfiljournal.com

 

 

Dreaming of summer breezes. Ted and Barb Dallimore

are planning to sell a few of their watercraft at this year’s

Toronto International Boat Show. / Bruce Hain

 

We may be still be digging out from under more snow this week, but a number of Innisfil businesspeople are thinking of summertime already and writing up dozens of orders at the Toronto International Boat Show.

 

The show started last Saturday at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place and ends this Sunday.

 

Ted Dallimore, owner of Sandy Cove Marine, said he participated in his first Boat Show in Toronto 48 years ago, the same year he founded his business.

 

Being in the show is a must if you want to be a player in the business, Dallimore says.

“If you’re not there, you’re not in this industry,” he says. “You go to test the market to see what’s happening.”

“It’s a show you have to be in,” agrees his wife, Barb.

 

This year, Sandy Cove Marine has three booths in the show, including the company’s latest initiative, Sandy Cove Recyclers.

 

“My son, Scott, and his crew have been setting up since Tuesday morning (January 5),” Dallimore says. “By the time the show opens, it’s like a city has been built.”

 

Being a part of the show can be quite a financial undertaking.

“I figure it’s costing about $150,000 to be part of the show,” Dallimore says. “There’s the cost of three booths, a dozen people to put up in hotels for 10 nights and the expense of moving 25 boats up and down the highway. We’ll have to write $1.2 million (of sales) to break even.”

 

Regardless of the cost, attendance should exceed 100,000 this year and the exposure gives Sandy Cove Marine, and the other exhibitors, a first-class format to display their wares and talk shop with others involved in the industry.

 

“I’ve even had people I’ve sold to from Ireland, who bought two boats and shipped them back,” Dallimore says.

 

Dan Doig of DockInaBox says, “What does Innisfil have to do with the Boat Show? We’ve got more boating businesses in such a small area, with a huge footprint at the show, than any other localized area in Ontario.”

 

Doig says his company has expanded its booth this year to join other major local exhibitors such as Doral Boats, Legend Boats and the Dallimores.

 

The Toronto exhibition is “an excellent medium for us,” Doig says. “The show looks good and everything is positive. We’re looking forward to a banner year. Our expanded growth has meant we’ve almost doubled the size of our booth and we’re showing more product than ever before.”

 

Doig is 20-year veteran of attending the Boat Show in different capacities.

“We have a real ‘Boating Alley’ here in Innisfil with a lot of involvement with the boat Show,” he adds. “A lot of the visitors to the show drive by us every weekend to and from their cottages.”

 

Highlights of the Boat Show, now in its 52nd year, include a giant indoor lake, larger than a NHL rink, along with hundreds of exhibitors, a variety of entertainment and demonstrations.

 

The Toronto International Boat Show is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

Admission is $15 for adults, seniors 65-plus are $12 and a two day pass can be purchased for $25. Kids under16 free when accompanied by an adult.

 

The Boat Show is sponsored by Princecraft, Mercury the Toronto Star and CFRB.

For detailed information, visit www.torontoboatshow.com