Boatfolk to be refinanced or sold...it seems

ylop said:
In my experience once PE get involved, it’s run as a spreadsheet game and so enshitification of the service or price rises (or both!) is almost inevitable. If the current owners haven’t already done that anyone else with £100m to spend on a portfolio is almost certainly going to!
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Exactly.. That seems to be the risk of PE schemes. Squeeze every cost to the minimum and push every price as high as possible. Bangor NI is probably a good object example. Boatfolk only manage the site (and don't manage the yard) and there is no real development opportunity for them, hence since the shift from Quay Marinas it's been held together by the Blue Peter building model. That said, it seems at some of Boatfolk's more flagship sites with more physical assets and dockside businesses, customer feedback has been good.

Personally, I don't like PE for the very reasons in your post. The nature of the business can easily become a vehicle for short term investor earning but with little regard for the long-term quality or sustainability of the business. (Though I'm sure that isn't a hard n fast rule)
 
Seastoke said:
Well they recently invested £600000. In a new building at Conwy
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I'm not surprised. Boatfolk have clearly spend a looot of money in areas where they see potential return? They must have seen Conwy as worth throwing some cash into. All part of 'growing the business'.
 
Seastoke said:
Well take Torbay MDL own both marinas so no local competition on price.
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Ok I can see owning all the neighbouring marinas could have price fixing advantages, and even sensible resource sharing options (move staff from one to another, spare kit if something breaks, provide access to something like pump out at only one facility but let all use it etc) but boatfolk don’t seem to have that approach - their acquisition strategy seems to have been to get UK wide coverage like that would be a selling point.
Seastoke said:
Well they recently invested £600000. In a new building at Conwy.
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There will have been a very clear business case, poured over by accountants to make that decision. Probably dozens of other ideas were rejected. Sometimes spending £60 is the right thing to do and doesn't need a return on investment calculation because its obvious that when you put customers first long term you get rewards. That's not a complaint about Boatfolk specifically - its an observation about PE and its (usual) focus on numbers and "this quarter" and squeezing management, and consequently those further down the pecking order because customer service, staff moral, etc are very hard to quantify on a spreadsheet. My experience is PE are often pretty crap at understanding the business they are in, indeed if they were better at it they wouldn't be looking to offload it - they would be milking the dividends!
 
ylop said:
That's not a complaint about Boatfolk specifically - its an observation about PE and its (usual) focus on numbers and "this quarter" and squeezing management, and consequently those further down the pecking order because customer service, staff moral, etc are very hard to quantify on a spreadsheet. My experience is PE are often pretty crap at understanding the business they are in, indeed if they were better at it they wouldn't be looking to offload it - they would be milking the dividends!
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Yup. That's pretty much it, despite a pretty bold marketing model of being 'boat people' etc (though I'm sure there are many staff that are), Boatfolk are short term spreadsheet chasers.
 
petem said:
I've not heard of them (I;m clearly out of touch with the UK marina scene).

But looking at their website, why on earth have they got a green colour scheme? And some very weird typography.
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They are a green company, they sell you very expensive diesel , to stop you burning to much.
 
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