West Marine
- For the British boat manufacturer company see: West Marine Ltd. (Peel Engineering)
- Not to be confused with West Marin.
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: WMAR) |
|---|---|
| Industry | specialty retail and wholesale |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Watsonville, California |
| Number of locations | 325+[1] |
| Key people | Randy Repass (Founder) Geoff Eisenberg (CEO) |
| Products | boating supply |
| Employees | 5,000 (varies by season) |
| Website | www.westmarine.com |
West Marine is an American company based in Watsonville, California which operates a chain of boating supply and fishing retail stores. They operate over 300 retail stores in North America.
[edit] History
The company was founded in 1968 by Randy Repass in Sunnyvale, California with the name West Coast Ropes, selling nylon rope from his garage. The first retail West Coast Ropes store opened in 1975 in Palo Alto, California. 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 division called Port Supply. In 1991, the first West Marine stores opened on the East Coast of the United States in Miami and Annapolis and in 1993 the company went public on the NASDAQ exchange (symbol WMAR).
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 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 75,000 products online, in stores, and via mail-order catalog.
In July 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 and İbrahim Yazıcı. In March 2009, the second store was opened in Kalamış and June 2009 saw the opening of the third franchise store in Bodrum. The fourth store, in Marmaris, opened in October 2010 with more stores planned around the coast of Turkey.
