Boatshed’s annual conference took place in January at Haslar Marina in Gosport. The conference was held over 2 days with Boatshed Brokers attending from all over the UK, Europe and Asia.

The annual conference is an ideal opportunity for Brokers across the entire Boatshed group to get together, catch up and network. During the conference, the Brokers also took part in workshops on topics including: software improvements and website developments; listing agreements; using the power of the Boatshed Network to benefit customers and sourcing boat buyers. Various industry expert guest speakers also discussed with Brokers ideas and guidance on marketing and promoting boats for sale in the current climate, and good customer service.

Boatshed's key performance statistics were discussed:

  • 50+ international branches.
  • Over 600,000 registered buyers.
  • 150,000 unique web visitors each month.
  • Boatshed sells over 1000 boats each year.
  • And we sell them twice as quickly as other brokers!

Stats like these don't just happen. They are testament to the hard work, dedication and enthusiasm of the entire Boatshed team and reflect the strength of our growing brand.

The Brokers also benefited from detailed presentations on the Preferred Partners Scheme - Boatshed’s unique programme of partnering with local and national marine service and product suppliers to secure price discounts for Boatshed’s customers - and Independent Pre-Sale Assessments of boats offered for sale by Boatshed, and the Marine Inspection Association; services offered by Boatshed to reduce the costs of boat ownership for our customers and to increase the efficiency and transparency of selling a used boat.

New Boatshed Brokers were welcomed at the conference: Billy and Jo Hallam are taking the reins of Boatshed Plymouth from Stephen and Gill Grimshaw, who are retiring after a number of years; Edward Kay is opening a brand new brokerage office on the Cote d'Azur on the South Coast of France, and Rolv Reissiger and Dato Nancy Yeoh are opening another brand new office in Penang in Malaysia. We also welcomed new local team members from Boatshed Central Sales.

The annual Boatshed Broker Awards were presented by Peter Cardy, the former Chief Executive of the MCA. The award for overall ‘Best Boatshed Broker 2014’ went to Graham and Magali Wharmby from Boatshed Bourgogne, Boatshed Midi Canals, Boatshed St Malo and Boatshed Port Saint Lois. Graham and Magali also won the award for ‘Business Development’ in their region, which is particularly impressive as they joined Boatshed less than 4 years ago!

The conference signalled the end of an extremely successful 2014 for Boatshed.

There was no rest for Neil Chapman (CEO) and the HQ team who went straight from the conference into our training course for new brokers. All very exciting opportunities for those involved. The course is intensive, comprehensive and stretches over 3 days. All aspects of Yacht Brokerage are covered. It involves everything from the practical side of properly photographing a boat, to the sophisticated software developed by Boatshed over the last 13 years, which is designed to help new Brokers run their businesses and sell boats twice as fast as other brokers!