West Marine
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with West MarinWest MarinWest Marin is the largest rural region of Marin County, California.The West Marin Chamber of Commerce includes seven unincorporated communities in its definition of West Marin: Point Reyes Station, Olema, Stinson Beach, Bolinas, Tomales, Dillon Beach, and Inverness...
.
West Marine is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
company based in Watsonville, California
Watsonville, California
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 51,199 according to the 2010 census.Located on the central coast of California, the economy centers predominantly around the farming industry. It is known for growing strawberries, apples, lettuce and a host...
which operates a chain of boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
supply and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
retail stores. They operate over 300 retail stores in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
History
The companyCompany
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
was founded in 1968 by Randy Repass in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
with the name West Coast Ropes, selling nylon
Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...
rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...
from his garage. The first retail West Coast Ropes store opened in 1975 in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
. With the acquisition of assets from West Products in 1977, the company changed its name to West Marine Products, Inc. In 1978 West Marine established a wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
division called Port Supply. In 1991, the first West Marine stores opened on the East Coast of the United States
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
in Miami and Annapolis and in 1993 the company went public on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
exchange.
West Marine merged with E&B Marine in 1996 to target a larger customer base of power boat enthusiasts. In 2003 they acquired the BoatU.S. Product Division
BoatUS
The Boat Owners Association of The United States, better known as BoatU.S., is an American association of boat owners offering various services and recreational boat and trailer towing activities...
and have since grown over three times as large as their nearest competitor, which was Boater's World, before they went out of business and closed all stores nationwide in 2009. West Marine currently provides over 100,000 products online, in stores, and via mail-order catalog.
In July of 2008, West Marine opened its first franchise store in Istanbul, Turkey. The newly formed company, East Marine Denizcilik ve Turizm A.Ş trades as West Marine Turkey and is majority owned by Rahmi Koç
Rahmi Koç
Rahmi Mustafa Koç is a Turkish businessmanBorn in Ankara as the only son of one of Turkey's wealthiest man Vehbi Koç, he attended high school at Robert College in Istanbul after his primary education in Ankara. Rahmi Koç then studied at the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. and received his B.A...
and İbrahim Yazıcı. In March of 2009, the second store was opened in Kalamış and June 2009 saw the opening of the third franchise store in Bodrum
Bodrum
Bodrum is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The site was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the...
. The fourth store, in Marmaris, opened in October 2010 with more stores planned around the coast of Turkey.