The nuts and bolts of the yachting industry
I had the pleasure of meeting with Maurits Stock, owner of Balearic Fasteners S.L. this week at his incredibly-stocked premises in Palma. This dynamic Dutchman set up his business in 2007, supplying every kind of fastener to specialist companies and professionals within the yachting industry, as well as other sectors.
Since operating from his finca in San Llorenç in the early days, Balearic Fasteners has steadily but surely grown to a team of four. They relocated to their current location in Son Castello in 2019 and have created a very slick operation providing a friendly and welcoming counter service, as well as offering free delivery within 24-48 hours on purchases over €50 – very nifty for Spain, I’m sure you will agree!
So naturally, I wanted to find out more about the business and how it is faring during these strange times:
Q. Having relocated to San Costello in 2019, what impact did Covid have upon the business?
The first 2-3 months of the year, things were great – sales up 30-40%, which was necessary as I had 2 new guys in the warehouse, and of course had to cover the costs of the relocation and increased rent. Then from mid-March, everything stopped for a few weeks, but gradually started to improve once again. Overall our sales were up by 15-20% on 2019 so I’m not complaining!
Q. How do you think things will be this year?
I don’t know but I think the yachting industry will be good because people who have money want to go on holiday. What are they going to do? They will want to rent a big yacht and these have to be maintained and repaired, so hopefully we will be OK.
Q. With the Palma Boat Show not looking likely to happen this year, will this impact your business?
The boat show isn’t so important for us to sell directly, but we just have to be there for visibility so people see our brand and remember it, especially now we are here in Palma. I think in the yachting industry we are lucky because we still have jobs.
Q. You have a counter here so can people just turn up to buy from you or do they have to pre-order?
No, we have a counter where people can pick-up, and we have a lot of people who come to collect just 10 bolts, for example. But we only sell to professionals – not to private individuals. We pride ourselves on being specialists and offering a great service, which is what people want. We can say we have the biggest assortment of fasteners in the Mediterranean, especially for the nautical Industry, and most of the stuff we sell is really difficult to source elsewhere.
Q. So exactly what products do you supply?
We sell stainless steel marine-grade fasteners, as well as brass, bronze, aluminium, and high tensile steel 10.9 and 12.9. We also sell nylon fasteners in every size from M3 to M30. We can supply or fabricate fasteners in all kinds of materials like duplex stainless steel, super duplex or even titanium. We also stock imperial fasteners in UNC, UNF and BSW in addition to metric, in normal or fine pitch.
Besides the fasteners we have exclusive dealer agreements with the following Companies.
Marinetech Gmb Germany – stainless steel nautical parts and hardware
MPC Hoseclamps BV, The Netherlands – strong, high pressure stainless steel hose clamps
Exact Präzisionswerkzeuge GmbH, Germany – high quality taps, drills, thread repair tools and sets.
All the above items we stock in our warehouse in Palma.
Q. What other industries do you supply?
We sell to shipyards for superyachts and submarines, nuclear power stations, solar plants and defence companies. As you can see – all kinds of industries, but being based here in the Balearics makes total sense for us to focus on the yachting industry.
Q. So what’s your next step for Balearic Fasteners?
We will continue to build upon our already great reputation so that everyone knows about us, and we will become the No.1 go-to place for fasteners in the Mediterranean.
With this determined Dutchman at the helm, these guys look well and truly set to be the ultimate specialists in the field of fasteners. They have an extremely impressive catalogue of stock and a great, easy-to-navigate website, and as his customers often say……
”If Balearic Fasteners Doesn’t Have It – Then Forget It!”
Written by: Lisa Thompson
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