Gallimore boatbuilders go bust—again!

[Gary Peacock]

Quote from Narrowboatworld-

 

"The company was then suffering from the competition of other boatbuilders who were importing and fitting-out cheap hulls from Poland and China."

 

You can view the full article HERE.

 

It seems the imported boats threat is still killing the home industry this being near the exact quote given in the directors report when Heron Boat Builders ceased trading in 2005.

 

Like most of these events the full story would be difficult to find but the "threat" if you consider it to be one is very real, but while I hear many bemoaning the New boat Co etc, I also have the uneasy feeling that if they had thought of and could have financed a similar operation then the story would have been different.

 

Lets face it the public will buy on price and if it is possible to buy a very high quality boat produced abroad at a price cheaper than a more basic UK built one then the UK built market is going to have to change.

 

UK builders need to adapt to survive!

 

The maybe next year things will be better bit I hear all too often is just plain foolish.

[carlt]

UK builders need to adapt to survive!

By building things other than boats, methinks.

[Maverick]

As the last incontinent pad soaks up the last bit of muck out the bilge and I prepare to put my boat away for the winter I'm glad its of good strong British construction and will survive all that our weather throws at it for the next 4 months.

 

Lets start a make Britain British again campain. Who the hell says its wrong to be racist? Out with all foreigners. nickin our fish from the Huddersfield was the last straw, theyre worse than bloody hire boaters.

 

Polish boats are cheaper and the british builders need to adapt eh? So how long before they sack the British and employ foreign builders who will work cheaper?

 

F***n B****!!s F***!!!!!!in Ba***ta!!!s Bit**s!!! Buggered if I'm goin sail the seven canals on a peice of Polish built crap.

 

Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the canals la la la la la la la.

[wrigglefingers]

As the last incontinent pad soaks up the last bit of muck out the bilge and I prepare to put my boat away for the winter I'm glad its of good strong British construction and will survive all that our weather throws at it for the next 4 months.

 

Lets start a make Britain British again campain. Who the hell says its wrong to be racist? Out with all foreigners. nickin our fish from the Huddersfield was the last straw, theyre worse than bloody hire boaters.

 

Polish boats are cheaper and the british builders need to adapt eh? So how long before they sack the British and employ foreign builders who will work cheaper?

 

F***n B****!!s F***!!!!!!in Ba***ta!!!s Bit**s!!! Buggered if I'm goin sail the seven canals on a peice of Polish built crap.

 

Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the canals la la la la la la la.

 

It's good to see Maverick is taking a balanced and reasoned view, enhancing the lives of all and sundry again. I'd like to think of it of irony except for the entirely predictable and depressing thought that a sizeable number will agree with him.

 

Shep

 

Call me a pedant, but it's not racist to object to people in other parts of Europe making so-called British boats, it's xenophobic.

[Maverick]

oh!

[pagan witch]

Buggered if I'm goin sail the seven canals on a peice of Polish built crap.

 

But is it C*&P ?

 

If it is truly an inferior product I can hold with your views but if it is an equal or better build quality then where it is built seems less of an issue.

 

Let's face it we have no UK car industry to speak of, no motorbike industry to speak of and no electronics industry either. Yet all of these products - cars, bikes & electronics - seem here to stay. I don't think it is now possible to buy anything of any significance that doesn't have multi national components.

 

Quite simply the days of the UK manufacturing much in the way of quality products is largely over with the exception of some businesses that have refused to go down the 'build it cheap & lots of it' route and make their market that of one based on quality and reliability - for which I think there will always be a market.

 

There are people in my trade working for a significantly lower hurly rate than mine but I provide a quality service and if they want my quality of service they pay for it. I refuse to cut my selling price just because someone else has decided they will work for less.

[David Schweizer]

.... Who the hell says its wrong to be racist? Out with all foreigners. nickin our fish from the Huddersfield was the last straw, theyre worse than bloody hire boaters.

 

Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the canals la la la la la la la.

 

 

Well thanks for that, I'll start packing now.

[dor]

To quote from NBW:

 

"A Mrs C Tuplin made a payment to the company of £85,000 for a narrowboat that is only valued at £36,000 and nowhere near completed. She has managed to rescue the boat, but suffering by Gallimore's deceit.

 

Tony Gallimore is now trading again at Boot Wharf."

 

Now we have all heard of people setting up companies, taking money from the punters then going bust. However if I was a certain Mr Gallimore and this is was I was doing, I would be very worried about meeting a couple of unsavoury characters one dark night, especially if they happened to be carrying a couple of baseball bats which accidentally slipped out of their hands at the time.......

 

Not that I would do such a thing myself.

...

..

..

..

 

But I know a man who would.

[Ron]

As the last incontinent pad soaks up the last bit of muck out the bilge and I prepare to put my boat away for the winter I'm glad its of good strong British construction and will survive all that our weather throws at it for the next 4 months.

 

Lets start a make Britain British again campain. Who the hell says its wrong to be racist? Out with all foreigners. nickin our fish from the Huddersfield was the last straw, theyre worse than bloody hire boaters.

 

Polish boats are cheaper and the british builders need to adapt eh? So how long before they sack the British and employ foreign builders who will work cheaper?

 

F***n B****!!s F***!!!!!!in Ba***ta!!!s Bit**s!!! Buggered if I'm goin sail the seven canals on a peice of Polish built crap.

 

Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the canals la la la la la la la.

 

The supermarkets can get away with local produce campaigns, they do not actually discourage the idea of buying goods from any particular race, creed, colour or relgious group, they just enourage the idea of buying locally for which there are sound arguments practically and environmentally.

 

You may save a few thousand by buying from Poland , but if the boat fails in some way you can hardly take it back to the builder to sort out the problem.

I imagine you could easily loose the money saved or more.

Edited November 19, 2007 by Ron

[Deepinvet]

If my BMW broke down would I take it back to Germany?????????? I don't think so.

[rojomo]

You may save a few thousand by buying from Poland , but if the boat fails in some way you can hardly take it back to the builder to sort out the problem.

 

 

You would also not be able to take it back to a bankrupt British builder.

 

John

[AMModels]

The supermarkets can get away with local produce campaigns, they do not actually discourage the idea of buying goods from any particular race, creed, colour or relgious group, they just enourage the idea of buying locally for which there are sound arguments practically and environmentally.

 

You may save a few thousand by buying from Poland , but if the boat fails in some way you can hardly take it back to the builder to sort out the problem.

I imagine you could easily loose the money saved or more.

But how many people buy hulls from poland as opposed to buying a finished boat from a boatyard over here that buys its hulls from a polish hull builder. Surely you would return the boat to the boatyard and theyd have to pay for the repair no matter who they get to do it?

[Gary Peacock]

The only amusing thing for the UK builders is that the more the Polish and other foreign imports flood into the market the more the competition between the suppliers will develop, while building boats outside the UK is more profitable it's not that massively so.

 

Now if a price war was to develop between those various companies with their high investment and being geared towards volume production the situation might change very rapidly.

[Bojangles]

To quote from NBW:

 

"A Mrs C Tuplin made a payment to the company of £85,000 for a narrowboat that is only valued at £36,000 and nowhere near completed. She has managed to rescue the boat, but suffering by Gallimore's deceit.

 

Tony Gallimore is now trading again at Boot Wharf."

 

Now we have all heard of people setting up companies, taking money from the punters then going bust. However if I was a certain Mr Gallimore and this is was I was doing, I would be very worried about meeting a couple of unsavoury characters one dark night, especially if they happened to be carrying a couple of baseball bats which accidentally slipped out of their hands at the time.......

 

Not that I would do such a thing myself.

...

..

..

..

 

But I know a man who would.

 

Make sure your 'friend' has a baseball with him. Then he is only practicing his sport

 

Otherwise the police seem to consider a baseball bat as an offensive weapon; strange

[jeb]

Make sure your 'friend' has a baseball with him. Then he is only practicing his sport

 

Otherwise the police seem to consider a baseball bat as an offensive weapon; strange

 

With these early and long nights it makes perfect sense for all boaters to carry a large maglight, just as effective and you can see where your going and nothing strange about that at all.

[carlt]

With these early and long nights it makes perfect sense for all boaters to carry a large maglight, just as effective and you can see where your going and nothing strange about that at all.

I find my petzl head torch much more effective.

[andy the hammer]

Tony Gallimore buillt our hull approximately two years ago, he and his team made a fantastic job and I would say it was at the higher end specification.

When we pulled our boat from the first boat fitter earlier this year we discovered that we had not got a Annexe111 A for the hull and when we contacted Tony we were told it was not issued because he had not recieved the last payment on the hull despite us paying in full to the fitter.

Tony then could have held us to ransom until we paid the final ammount but instead he said he would issue the documents to us with no problems.

Whilst we were having the hull built he had just purchased a business on the cut so I dont think he has just started up again but used good business sense and kept the boat building and boat yard seperate.

Tony may not be business man of the year but his knowledge of boat/hull building will missed.

 

[NB Willawaw]

Of the people I know who are in the process of buying new narrowboats, I don't know anybody who is buying a Chinese or Polish boat. Now that could be a reflection of my contacts, but I think this competition from abroad argument is being exaggerated a bit. I'm not saying the compeition isn't there - I'm just saying it can be a convenient excuse.

The problem is that some (not all) of our British yards cut corners, do a shoddy job and have very little business acumen.

 

The ones that do a good job will stay in business and the cowboys will go to the wall.

The issue is to make sure your money isn't with the cowboys.

Easier said than done.

 

I suspect in the end, the narrowboat-off-the-peg orders will go to the likes of NBC - Liverpool Boats beware.

 

I believe the bespoke market will hold its own providing the builders specialising in that sector sharpen up their act and give British customers VFM. A lot of UK builders are trying to jump on the bandwagon of the established names.

Edited November 20, 2007 by NB Willawaw

[carlt]

Tony Gallimore buillt our hull approximately two years ago, he and his team made a fantastic job and I would say it was at the higher end specification.

When we pulled our boat from the first boat fitter earlier this year we discovered that we had not got a Annexe111 A for the hull and when we contacted Tony we were told it was not issued because he had not recieved the last payment on the hull despite us paying in full to the fitter.

Tony then could have held us to ransom until we paid the final ammount but instead he said he would issue the documents to us with no problems.

Whilst we were having the hull built he had just purchased a business on the cut so I dont think he has just started up again but used good business sense and kept the boat building and boat yard seperate.

Tony may not be business man of the year but his knowledge of boat/hull building will missed.

 

Lovely looking boat but I'm sure giving up your documentation was less of a sacrifice than if he'd handed over Mrs Tulpin's £49k, which she'll never see again and the tens of thousands she'll have to part with to complete her dream.

[andy the hammer]

Lovely looking boat but I'm sure giving up your documentation was less of a sacrifice than if he'd handed over Mrs Tulpin's £49k, which she'll never see again and the tens of thousands she'll have to part with to complete her dream.

 

I feel very sorry for Mrs Tulpin as I lost money with our previous fitter, but the question must be asked why was that large sum of money paid for something that was not worth it.

 

Did she follow the golden rules ie contracts,stage payments and regular visits if she did is there some thing more that should be done to protect the customer?

 

Regards

 

Andy

 

PS

 

Tony could have held us to ransom as I hear through the grapevine there was a fairly large sum of money not paid.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[smileypete]

Lovely looking boat but I'm sure giving up your documentation was less of a sacrifice than if he'd handed over Mrs Tulpin's £49k, which she'll never see again and the tens of thousands she'll have to part with to complete her dream.

 

Would be good to get both sides of the story, not just one side third hand from NBW.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[carlt]

Would be good to get both sides of the story, not just one side third hand from NBW.

 

cheers,

Pete.

No need, anyone who hands over 80k+ for work not done is obviously completely naive and, once the builder's accepted it, and hits trouble, I can see the difficulty he'd have repaying it.

 

It's rough justice for the crime of stupidity, though.

[redfastlad]

oh!

Take a look at the imported boats when they are 3 yrs old we see a few for sale at Sawley and they don’t stand up to the weather very well the exterior finish looks poor and the external wood has faded and gives the boats a really old look, so I believe the residual value of the 3yr old imports will soon make prospective buyers think twice before jumping in and buying one out of the showroom. take a look at the boating mags and you will see a certain boat builder promising to build boats in unheard of times i.e. weeks and also no stage payments required, as for the builder going bust year in year out it continues, and yes because of the rich pickings here on the water these sharks keep returning for more please.

[WJM]

They may depreciate more quickly, but they start at a much lower price point - so they are a totally different financial proposition. You get the same effect in things like cars. It depends what the buyer wants. For some it is a relatively cheap purchase that they regard as disposable in the medium term. Not everyone wants a hand crafted work of art. £100k will buy you a boat that lasts 50 years, £50k buys one that lasts 20, the buyer makes his choice. The important thing for any boat supplier is to know what section of the market he is in and structure his operation accordingly. A lot of these business failures come from failing to grasp this basic tenet, like a serial bespoke builder going head-to-head on price with a mass producer. You dont see many Rolls Royces on the roads.

[Phil Speight]

Whenever this happens , or rather - more often than not when this happens - I get boring by saying BUY FROM A LONG ESTABLISHED AND WIDELY RESPECTED BUILDER. With all due respect to Gallimore Boatbuilders ( and I mean that ) I`ve never heard of them. I have heard of Colecraft and Wilsons and Norton Canes and Dave Harris and etc etc etc. and so has anybody who has knowledge of the industry , wether the knowledge has been acquired over many years or in one burst of careful rsearch. There are loads of boatbuilders covering a wide price band who have been trading well and successfully for year after year.They don`t go bust - and there is always going to be several good reason for that , including long term customer satisfaction and financial solidity to name but two.

Cheers

Phil

Oh yes - there is in fact not a whole loy wrong with Polish boats alas.Poor paintwork is by no means restricted to new boats that come from foreign parts. Even worse - I don`t actively dislike the Chinese ones!

Edited November 28, 2007 by Phil Speight