Boating Industry Canada October 2016 - 19

Charlie poses with his wife Chris and daughter Kelly at the giant 80th
Birthday Celebration at CC Marine almost 5 years ago.

This photo of Currey and Charlie was taken in 1991 with the special
ship's wheel birthday gift.

Charlie to get a propeller. That was the day the Sierra parts
book came out.
Other key people at that time included Lou Burgess, Doug
Wright, Don Hyde of Don Hyde Marine in Hagersville, Jim
Heighington at Proctor Marine, Bob Rule at Maple City Marine,
Frank Poole at Buckeye Marine in Bobcaygeon, and a solid
group of important dealers who were loyal to Currey and
Charlie. They had support.
As Pandian told us, at that time, Currey was still President
but Charlie really stepped up to the plate. He started to shine
making decisions for the company and demonstrating that he
was very sharp, very astute. Pandian was working with Charlie
who was the manager then and although Currey was still available for consultation, Charlie had to decide what products to
take on. Some of the key products lines at that time were
Sierra, Teleflex and ITT.
Today they have more than 200 different suppliers.
That first year, if Charlie wasn't the guy that he is, they
probably would have closed down, Rick told us, but Charlie
and his dad took it on the road.
Perhaps one of the best CC Marine stories comes from Rick
Chang. He was young and just starting out then and he would
fill up a station wagon with catalogs and drive from dealer to
dealer, introducing himself and handing out catalogs. Of
course the OMC dealers knew CC Outboard Parts, but the
Mercury and Yamaha dealers did not.
At one point, Charlie asked Currey to go on the road with
Rick. Currey was willing to go into the OMC dealerships but
not to the Mercury or the Yamaha dealers because in those
days, OMC would cancel your dealership if they even saw a
Mercury part in your marina.
One day, Rick forced Currey out to meet some of the
Mercury dealers. When he got back into the car, Currey told
him, "By God Rick, we really have something."
It's all about service and Rick told us that the Mercury guys
had not had this level of service before and they were warmly

received. Also Rick explained to us that Currey taught him a
lot about the business. If you shake someone's hand, you stand
behind your deal even if you are losing money. Another principle was to not go in and load people up. It's okay to take their
returns in order to keep their inventory under control.
Pandian also told us that they have always believed there
would be room for them in the marine industry because they
see their dealers' welfare as being the most important thing.
That governs their outlook and the dealers reciprocate. They
are very genuine he said to me. That loyalty has helped to
make CC Marine Distributors the enduring success it is today.
In the coming year, the company will simultaneously celebrate Charlie's 85th birthday and the 85th Anniversary of CC
Marine Distributors. They are gearing up for their annual dealer show at the end of October this year and perhaps that will
start the whole year of celebration.
Also, Sierra will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary and
we congratulate them as well.
If you know Charlie personally, you'll probably laugh at this
next part. As he walked me through their bustling business,
meeting the many people who make up the CC Marine family,
Charlie looks up to heaven, holds his hands up and asks, how
did we get so lucky?
I started this article with a quote from Michael Hyatt and
I'm going to end it with a quote from Canada's great humorist,
Stephen Leacock. Leacock once wrote, "I'm a great believer in
good luck - I find the harder I work the more I have of it!"
Charlie is the leader who makes everyone feel secure and he
leads by example, coming in early, staying late and getting
things done. You would certainly say he works hard. Frankly,
the business has always been well run and there is now an 85year tradition of treating their people well.
But there's one thing that I know Charlie will disagree with
and that is saying that he's working hard. He has told me many
times, he's not working hard, he's having fun!

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boating Industry Canada October 2016