Seawork veterans reach 25th Anniversary
Regular Seawork exhibitor and commercial marine industries mail order distribution company ASAP Supplies celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.
It was on 1 April 1989 that Peter Edwards and Mark Reynolds officially started trading as ASAP Supplies. At 36 and 26 years of age respectively, they were working for a marine engine supply company. When that company stopped promoting the smaller engines and spares, they found they greatly missed spending time working with those customers and solving their technical problems.
Their aim and passion was to bring value to customers through technical support and knowledge. The company started in Peter’s double garage, adding a mobile van to deliver goods. Free technical help for any customer as a standard proved extremely popular with customers. A dramatic rise in demand saw ASAP move into office/warehouse units, with Peter’s twin brother Nigel joining early on. The company now employs some 32 staff in a building occupying 10,000 sq/ft.
Mark recalls the journey: “It was exciting, scary, a great learning curve, brought brilliant experiences and was very hard work. To see today the number of staff and where ASAP stands in the global market is still inspiring and makes it all worth it.”
The company ethos is to try very hard to ensure that the first customer experience of ASAP makes them want to come back again, and there are some loyal customers who have used the company since day one. ASAP have always believed in NVQ training, staff development and people taking time to think about their job being key to their success.
Notable achievements were the first website going live in 1997 and the first online store going live in 1999, as well the catalogue, which has always been produced in-house, even designed fully in-house since 2008. Being appointed as Faria’s expedited warehouse was a boost, as was the agreement to purchase direct from the USA since 1992.
The company aims to keep the close team that’s been built and provide solutions to customer queries, with more than 12,000 quality lines in stock and same day despatch. The team will be welcoming all visitors to their stand at Seawork 2014.
