Scott Bradley has been a very successful busi-nessman since he first arrived in Phuket in 1991. Today, he runs East Marine, S/E largest chandlery, as well as Precision Shipwright Services, the most experienced yacht refit and repair company in Phuket.

Scott, a trained Shipwright and Boatbuilder from Australia started Precision in 1997 in Phuket Boat Lagoon. Scott arrived in Phuket five years earlier, when he came to join his father, who had sailed here. He bought his father’s boat, a 35ft cruising ketch called Gomorrah. In 1993, he used the yacht to charter backpackers around to areas like Phi Phi and Krabi, basing the boat out of Patong and Krabi he had to go in pubs and bars to get backpack-ers, “They’d break things on board it wasn’t easy,” Scott explains. Then in 1994, he took over from Chris Schaefer as the captain of the 75ft motor yacht called Elsa, soon renamed Romi. It was a big turning point in his life, as it was a really good job, and he would have had to return to Australia if that hadn’t materialized.

As Scott was trained to do high quality repair and refit work, he used the money he made from captaining Romi to start Precision. His first repair job in Thailand was a tough job on the beach doing osmosis work on three hulls on a 50ft trimaran.

A decade later he started East Marine. He had trained a lot of Thais in boat repair work by then, and many had gone on to start their own businesses but they needed products & supplies so starting East Marine seemed like a logical progression.

East Marine Asia

Today, East Marine Asia is Southeast Asia's largest online chandlery with over 10,000 items in stock. It rep-resents and distributes over 100 brands of the finest yacht equipment including AWLGRIP, International Yacht Paint, West System, Epifanes, Aqua Signal, Forespar, Muir, Groco, Whale, Donaghys, Hamma wire ropes & termi-nals, 3M, Magma, Force 10, Rocna, Martyr, Starbrite, Shurhold, Gelair, Just Teak, K2R much, much more.

East Marine supplies paints, varnishes, rigging, maintenance, polishes, cleaners, high tech ropes, deck hardware, fiberglass, resin, hatches, marine fittings, plumbing, stoves, BBQs, anodes, electrical products, hinges and much more…

A few years back the company expanded its business from its original base in Phuket Boat Lagoon by opening a new chandlery at Ao Po Grand Marina. The two outlets share similar product lines and share the same operating hours (8am-5pm; closed Sundays), though both have been known to stay open late. With professional staff, service and product knowledge East Marine provides customers with quality and assurance.

Customers can install or use most of the products they buy from East Marine themselves, but with something like Muir’s specialty winches, the Precision Shipwrights crew is mobile and can install them on your boat.

The company has 34 distribution brands in its portfolio (not including direct distribution); they all serve different purposes for either sailing or motor yachts.

AWLGRIP is the company’s flagship ma-rine paint. East Marine uses the Awlmix advanced color mixing system that AWLGRIP uses in its factories. “We can mix almost every colour, in gallons and quarts. Singapore and Thailand are the only two countries in Asia with this equipment,” Scott explains.

Using the unique color code assigned to each custom color, the company can now speedily, accurately and easily produce paint on-site to the same consistent high quality that made AWLGRIP famous.

East Marine Asia is shipping products worldwide. “With DHL and Fedex services we are able to ship non-dangerous goods anywhere. We also have efficient and cost-effective nationwide freight services,” Scott says.

Scott has invested most of what he has back into the company. Since he started his business, the tax on most leisure marine parts on average has gone down from over 20% to 10% on most of the items he sells, but the cost of freight and insurance is what drives prices up. Scott says, East Marine Asia are now drop shipping some of their top brands, directly from the manufacturer to the customer.

Precision Shipwright Services

Precision is an internationally renowned specialist yacht refit and repair company. Since the beginning Precision has worked with thousands of yacht owners to produce the highest quality exterior, interior and structural improvements on yachts.

The company’s efficient working methods, experienced well-trained staff and its quality materi-als ensure results envisioned by every yacht owner.

Precision’s yacht refit & repair services in-clude: painting & varnishing; marine carpentry and woodwork; yacht rigging solutions and fine tuning, architectural rigging, fiberglass modifications & repairs; composite boatbuilding.

In addition to these services Precision along with its selected group of partners offers: stainless steel & aluminum work, marine electrical services, mechanical engineering, plumbing and hydraulic services.

Precision Shipwright Services has a total of 950sqm indoor factory space and workshops as well as additional covered outdoor mobile shelter. It offers the highest possible quality of refit work for yachts up to 80 tons

What sets Precision apart is it offers year-round excellent working conditions, premium brands for products and tools, modern equipment in dedicated workshops, a safe and efficient working environment in the factory, secure storage areas and S/E Asia’s largest Chandlery in the adjoining building.

Moving Forward

East Marine Asia (East Marine) will soon introduce cash gift vouchers to customers, which they can use within a specified period of time. Tickets valuing 100, 200, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 baht will be given away depending on products and amount spent

The company will also be distributing recyclable bags with purchases to help save the envi-ronment and minimize the use of plastic bags.

East Marine will also be giving away free hats and T-shirts to selected customers.

East Marine will also be expanding its premises; in the past it was common to crowd things together in a retail sales section, but today customers want space, they want to see products, try them out if possible, as East Marine has so many products, it thereby needs more space. The company will also start to manufacture more of its own products like anchor chains.

But the biggest news by far is that Scott plans to merge the two companies under the East Marine name. This will make life easier for the customer and company alike. (www.eastmarineasia.com; www.precision-shipwright.com).