Sure, all states have lakes. But how many can claim shorelines with four of the five Great Lakes and over 11,000 inland lakes? Just one: Michigan. That’s why manufacturing boats, engines, trailers, and boat accessories in Michigan makes so much sense.
Where’s the proof? The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) ranked Michigan third in the country in boat sales in 2016. The state also had a 10.5 percent increase in boat, engine, trailers, and accessories since 2014. Those are stats that send a big message: The boat business is booming in Michigan.
Vision Marine Products visionary and Michigan native Bruce Jones understood this growing market and the distinct advantages Michigan offers for manufacturing products here. The more than 900,000 registered boats and nearly 1,500 marine businesses speak to the boating market being incredibly sustainable. Couple those facts with the number of lakes in Michigan and the innovation to think up a product that is virtually alone in its market and you just might have the recipe for success.
“Here at Vision Marine Products, llc. we are proud to manufacture our Easy Cover™ automatic pontoon cover in the state of Michigan,” said Jones. “As a manufacturer of pontoon boat accessories, we believe we are in the perfect location for our products. Our geographical location places us within a 100-mile radius of several of the largest pontoon manufacturers in the nation. Collectively, these manufacturers account for more than half the pontoon boats built in the U.S.”
Vision Marine Products seemed to have all its stars align when it came to competitive advantage in a local market. Jones, an engineer by trade, took his distaste of covering and uncovering his pontoon boat at his cottage and turned it into a sustainable and vertically integrated Michigan business with the invention of the Easy Cover™. The abundance of inland lakes coupled with the innovative design of the Easy Cover™ gave Vision Marine Products a unique advantage in the boat accessory market.
“Our location in Michigan also positions us in excellent proximity to a vast number of lakes that are the homes and cottages of ideal consumers of our product. Many of our lakes are located close enough to major metropolitan areas that the owners either live full-time at the lake and commute, or they are close enough to visit their cottages frequently,” said Jones. “These folks are at the lake often enough to realize that while they are ‘lake lovers,’ they are not ‘mooring cover lovers.’ We’re here to help them resolve the mooring cover hassle.”
The Easy Cover™ is a power pontoon boat cover that operates via a wireless key fob. It can go from fully covered to Bimini mode in the time it takes you to walk down to the lake. Jones designed, prototyped, manufactures, and markets the Easy Cover™ through his company, Vision Marine Products, LLC in the Devil’s Lake region of southeast Michigan. Seeing the obvious advantage of partnering with a local marina, Jones paired up with Mike and Pat Apling, owners of Devil’s Lake Water Sports. Jones and the Aplings are the business principals of Vision Marine Products.
In addition to the geographic and market benefits to starting a pontoon accessory manufacturing business in Michigan, Vision Marine Products has received marketing assistance from the state of Michigan through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and from Lenawee County through Lenawee Now, the County’s economic development organization. Vision Marine Products has also received significant assistance from South Central Michigan Works!, a workforce development system, to find and train their workforce.
“All in all, our location in Michigan is made to order for a business like ours,” said Jones.