DOCKPRO sails away with innovation award

Written on the 21 July 2021 by Marshall Hall

Nerang-headquartered DockPro has sailed away with an innovation award.

DOCKPRO was named the winner of the Mayor's Innovation Award for June at the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards presentation fittingly held at the Southport Yacht Club this week.

DOCKPRO, which was previously awarded the prestigious Miami International Boat Show award for Innovation in 2019, was set up in 2004 after engineer Allan Barber started selling his innovative dry-docking solution call SeaPen.

The company, which is now managed by Allan's son Mark Barber, now builds, and sells dry-docking solutions throughout the world.

Mark Barber said the company, after having dominated the Australia and New Zealand markets, had decided in 2019 to expand to the USA, which represents 50 per cent of the global market.

"Our SeaPen product range is ideal for centre-console vessels between 45ft and 55ft in length and this matches a big percentage of the recreational boat market in the United States,'' said Mr Barber.

"We fortunately found a great partner in the US and we have sold more than 200 SeaPen products in our first two-and-a-half years in the US market."

The company's push into the US market was boosted when SeaPen won the prestigious 2019 Miami International Boat Show Award for Innovation.

Mr Barber said the US growth had initially posed supply issues for the company and it had been looking at establishing a US-based factory.

"When we first started recording sales in the US, we could only ship 3-4 units in a shipping container,'' said Mr Barber.

"The costs associated with transport meant that unless we could improve the number of units in a container, we would have to set up an assembly plant in the US as well in Australia.

"So, we IKEA'ed our product range. Through a lot of effort and redesign, we are now able to ship up to 19 SeaPen units in a single shipping container.

"This means, for the time being, we no longer need to open a US-based assembly plant."

As well as the Gold Coast and the US market, DockPro also has a network of warehouses and installer teams in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Auckland.

The June winners in the other categories were:

• Student Engagement Award: Lauxes Grates
• Family Business Award: Opal Auctions
• Health and Wellbeing Award: Amtan Medical Centres
• Professions and Services Award: TCLH
• Retail, Wholesale and Distribution Award: Macro Mike
• Construction and Trades Award: NTS Group
• Manufacturing Award: Knotwood
• IT and Digital Business Award: BITS Technology Group
• Tourism, Hospitality and Events Award: GCD Exhibitions
• Emerging and Micro Business Award: Slim by Nature

The awards, now in their 26th year, aim to foster pride in the city's business community and highlight its important as a business hub. Some of the city's best-known companies can claim to have been winners.

The awards' major sponsors include Dreamweavers, Mercedes Benz Gold Coast, Nuemann Steel, NuCrush Group, Neumann Contractors, Neumann Developments, QSuper, Study Gold Coast, City of Gold Coast, Choice Homes, MPM Property, Westpac, Harvey Norman Commercial Queensland, Optus Business Centre Gold Coast and Griffith University. The awards' media sponsors include the Gold Coast Bulletin, Nine NBN Television, 92.5 MMM and Hit 90.9.

The GCBEA's major supporters are KPMG, Document Solutions Australia, Bloomtools, Consulting Hall, The Graphic Design Company, The Star Gold Coast, Regina King Photography and Bond University.