A Few Minutes With ... Chris Butler

BEAUFORT – Boaters don’t lack for choices when they deal with Butler Marine.

First off, they can pick which store to frequent.

The business is headquartered in a 16,000-square-foot center completed a year ago at 70 Sea Island Parkway here. In the three-year project, Butler Marine more than quadrupled the size of the original outlet opened in 2001.

If Beaufort is too far away, the business opened a second location in Charleston a few years ago. The 10,000-square-foot outlet is at the intersection of Main Road and Savannah Highway. Jim McClure is the store manager.

Meanwhile, water enthusiasts can pick from a healthy lineup, with boats ranging in costs from $10,000 to $350,000 and sizes up to 35 feet, Butler said.

“We can hit pretty much any price range,” he said.

The dealership’s best seller by numbers is Key West boats, which are built in Summerville. Other models are World Cat-Glacier Bay, Sheerwater and Everglade.

Models are available for recreational use and sport-fishing, single or dual console and, with the larger vessels, plush berths below with sleeping quarters, microwaves, refrigerators, sinks and flat-screen TVs.

The brands complement each other. Key West, he said, is like a Toyota, large volume, moderately-priced and high quality. The Sheerwater line is super-fast, with a top speed of 66 miles per hour. Everglade is the large, luxury model: the Beaufort store has a few that dominate the showroom. World Cat-Glacier Bay is a mid-sized fishing and sport boat priced from $80,000 to $260,000.

All boats have outboard engines, for a reason. “You have less problems with them in salt water,” Butler explained. Also ocean-going boats can be adapted to fresh water, but boats that are popular in fresh water run into troubles with the corrosive salt.

The dealership lines up customers online and acts as an agent to sell boats for clients, known as consignment. The business has sold boats to customers in including Hawaii and has arranged shipments to clients as far as Australia, he said.

The stores look after a variety of clientele. Butler compared shopping for a boat to buying clothes. “You want a pair of shorts, or a full mink coat?”

Another area of choice for shoppers is the parts and accessories departments. Butler said 80 percent of supply sales at the Beaufort store are through the retail shop rather than service department, which is an unusually high figure in the industry. He cited the outlet’s central location on the parkway, in the Lady’s Island section of Beaufort, which leads to a lot of drop-in traffic.

Accessory sales can add up to big bucks. A recent customer who bought a rather inexpensive $7,000 boat purchased another $600 in fishing gear, Butler said.

Even though Beaufort and Charleston are less than 90 minutes drive time from each other, their markets are distinct.

The Beaufort store, which draws customers from Hilton Head Island and Savannah, Ga., is skewed towards recreational and higher-end boat buyers, while the Charleston area is focused on the fishing brands, he said.

Separately, Beaufort didn’t feel the national boating industry slowdown until last summer, but the slump has continued. By contrast, the Charleston outlet’s sale pace slowed in early 2009 but it’s already improving.

“I see a slow climbing back up the mountain,” he said, noting that 2010 will be a better year than 2009.

Butler, 41, is a Pennsylvania native who moved to South Carolina in 1993. Along with the boating business, he was a partner in Butler Chrysler Dodge Jeep auto dealership in Beaufort until 2005. His wife Maureen Butler, who is also from Pennsylvania, handles the boat business’ marketing.

While he grew up going to a nearby lake where his family had a boat, Butler didn’t get actively involved in the pastime until moving south. “Now I probably put 300 to 500 hours (a year) on the water.”

The Butlers have two children, daughter Kelsey, 15; and son Keaton, 13. Boating has been a big part of the family’s recreational time.

“You get in the boat, everybody is together, having some good times,” Butler said. “We’ve had memories around here for 17 years (and) 90 percent of them are around the boat.”

For more information, go online to www.butlermarineinc.com.

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com