Personal

 

Dear Boating Enthusiast,

 

 

I firmly believe our range of products has not only got larger this year but also much more interesting. The main reason for this is that we have worked much harder on `price v. performance´. Many customers and people we meet ask us how we manage to find such good products at sometimes amazingly low prices. This can´t always be answered in one sentence. However there is one good starting point. I am, heart and soul, a boater!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a small child I used to go to Sweden with my parents and sail our Delanta 80. When I was 6 I got my first Optimist ("Flipper") and got my first experience of boat handling. This led on to racing in anything that would float - starting in Oppies and ending in Corsairs and Flying Dutchmen in National and International Championships. I still try, when time permits, to get a crew together and do Kiel Week in our cruiser. Our family holidays are invariably on the boat, either in Denmark, Sweden or latterly in the Med where we took the boat for a little more warmth! For me, this is just the best. I love cruising and working on a boat so I can forget all about the `facts and figures´ of running a businessand just get back to basics and see how different products work. There are many products out there that look nice but when you have to rely on them, that´s another story!

 

I do believe that one of the reasons for the success of the company is that we do know what we are talking and writing about. Both my wife (also involved in the Company) and I are active sailors as are many of our employees. We also have boaters in every department in the organisation! If new employees don´t have that experience we are happy to send them on a Competent Crew course!

 

 

 

 

 

Creating a new catalogue every year is a mammoth task if we are to abide by our philosophy of bringing you only the best products at the best price. You might not necessarily find every last type of battery, anchor winch or fender as we just can´t list everything in our catalogue. What you will find in these pages are products that we have used, tested and offer special value. To this end our buyers visit on average 18 boat shows a year. Sometimes you can get too close to your own business and it is important to forge connections with outside bodies to help bring some objectivity. For several years we were indebted to the help we received from world class sailors such as Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Roy Heiner, Isabelle Autissier and Jochen Schuemann. We have also forged important links by working with the RYA and the great job they do in promoting and protecting our sport. We also support Lifeboats Offshore, the sea users´ membership of the RNLI. For two seasons now we have been campaigning our own X-Yachts IMX-40, having taken part in regattas all around Europe from Kiel Week to Copa del Rey in Spain. By sailing a boat so hard, sometimes under very tough conditions you can test in a week what would normally take 3 months or years to discover. Owning our own boat keeps us close to the problems we all experience, close to the sport and close to the sharp end of any new technology.

 

A Real Business

 

When my father launched his first 24-page catalogue in 1979, he could have had scant idea that it would become Europe´s largest marine mail order company. I remember, as a boy, helping in the warehouse and after obtaining qualifications in business studies I went off to learn how other large mainstream mail order companies operated, both at home and abroad. By the time I was 28 I decided it was time to see what I could bring to the family business. I can still remember being full of zeal and deciding that we had to make our own sailing trousers. So off I went to Turkey, but because we did not have the correct quality control checks in place it was a disaster! We now contract to a professional buying and quality assurance agency in Hong Kong as well as buying agencies all over Europe, always on the lookout for new and exciting products.

 

Another great piece of luck in my life was meeting my wife, Antje, whilst sailing! (How lucky can you get?!) As she then joined the company, we decided to split the main responsibilities which has since become one of the reasons for our success; I would look after all the product selection, catalogue production and marketing and she concentrates on service, delivery and customer orientation. That gives her the ability to stand back and see if we are a nice company to deal with!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So on we go. I hope it was useful to give you just a little background to our Company and something about the people and the philosophy that went into the catalogue and the box of goods on your doorstep! I always get a kick out of seeing our products being used out there and you never know, we might meet in an

Best regards

 

Michael Dehler and the Compass Crew