Jon Pridham has been MD at Cowes Yacht Haven for six years, joining the business from working with superyachts in Porto Montenegro. He’d previously worked for Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, having graduated from Portsmouth University with a degree in Civil Engineering.
Cowes Yacht Haven means lots of different things to different people doesn’t it?
I think so. We’re essentially a destination and a gateway to Cowes High Street and then the Isle of Wight. We are a visitor events based marina with 265 berths and over 200 are for visitors. If our marina was always full of resident boats, we wouldn’t be able to host events like Cowes Week and Round the Island, along with the Etchells World Championship. We also have the Haven Events Centre, which is the largest events venue on the Island. We can host a lot of people in the auditorium, althouvariousgh people can think that it’s too big and that’s a challenge sometimes. The majority of our revenue is definitely yachting related and comes in the summer months.
Sailing is often seen as a luxury activity; the events are also closely linked to corporate hospitality and sponsorship with names like Skandia and Aberdeen Asset Management. How have things changed in recent years?
The biggest change has been in the corporate sponsored events with the impact of the changes in title sponsorship. When big sponsors go they leave a big hole that you have to fill, and you can’t run a business like that. I need to focus on the 365 day operation of the business, with events being the pinnacles of the season, without us being dependent on them. Things are looking good too, and we’ve more than doubled our capacity in dry boat sailing in the last six years.
The other concern that also affects the whole marina industry is that people have more options on offer for their precious leisure time. The demographic is ageing and we’re not seeing an influx of the next generation coming into sailing for leisure.
Where do your visitors come from? How many people do you bring to the Island?
We’re getting around 25,000 boats visiting us each year, with an average of 4.5 people on board. That’s around 110,000 people that come through our marina every year. We attract another 30,000 per year with Cowes Week, Round the Island and the various events we host. This significant footfall and associated spend per head is extremely important to the economy of Cowes High Street and it couldn’t be achieved if we were a residential marina. Our catchment area includes Southampton water and Portsmouth, but it reaches as far as Poole, Chichester and the West Country as well as Brighton. In reality we get more visitors from France than we do from Brighton because distances can be comparable. During the summer season, if the weather is good, we will be full every weekend. For the customers that come here, it’s a journey but also a destination and that’s something that we’re really working on.
How competitive is it? Cowes Week is obviously a massive draw, but there are other options out there, from events and other locations.
What we have to do is provide a destination and a location that will make people want to come here, instead of somewhere else. Cowes cannot survive on its reputation forever and there’s an awful lot of work that goes on in within the Cowes community to promote the town as a destination, to make it flourish, bringing in events like the Figaro and Etchells World Championships. It definitely is competitive and the sailing actually might be better in Portland, where the Olympics were held, but as a destination and a location, Cowes is the right place. It’s about welcoming and entertaining the customers, the competitors and the visitors when they come here.
How do you grow the business?
The weather is a big issue but we’ll only be full if we’re servicing our customers properly. We all need to work together in Cowes – that’s us, the High Street, Red Funnel, Cowes Harbour Commission and the yacht clubs. We need to welcome people, whether they’ve come by boat, the Red Jet or car ferry. There are new ideas and options now, whether that’s getting on the bus, hiring a bike or using a Twizy. You can get to Newport really easily, but we need to get that message across to visitors. We want to be able to help customers to reach places and events, like the Garlic Festival or Robin Hill or Osborne House. That makes us more attractive as a destination.
We’re investing significantly too, with things like solar energy and biomass, along with a new hoist and a boat mover, which will change the way we operate in the yard. We’re in competition with all of the other marinas on the south coast and their facilities. Wi-Fi is a great example and a few years ago it was something that as a customer you’d pay for. Now it’s a given to access a good service for free. We have a two tier Wi-Fi network now, which means that you can sit on your yacht and watch Netflix. You have to keep moving forward.”
First published in the July 2016 issue of Island Business magazine.
