PETE SPOKE!!! (AND WE RECORDED IT)

[Divin'Papaw]

According to Dun & Bradstreet, here's who's who in annual sales revenue:
Leisure Pro - $7.63 million
Scuba.com - $4.92 million
Dive Right In - $1.33 million
Scuba Toys - $1.23 million
Dive Gear Express - $590,000

You win

I’m a bit surprised by the gap between 1-2 & 3-5.

 

[Pressurehead]

You win

I’m a bit surprised by the gap between 1-2 & 3-5.

That was a surprise.
A few divers here I know buy from Buy Scuba Diving Gear and Snorkeling Equipment Online |
Ken , how big are they, or are they owned by one of the others?
Being :

And don't forget to account for not only the time difference between here and Queensland, but also that you're on the other side of the Dateline. That may also be affecting things.

We don't know these things.
Just curious, thanks in advance.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

That was a surprise.
A few divers here I know buy from Buy Scuba Diving Gear and Snorkeling Equipment Online |
Ken , how big are they, or are they owned by one of the others?

According to D&B, $7.08 million (if they're the one is Gretna, Louisiana).

There's a second Divers Supply listed in Indianapolis that has $12 million in revenue. Not sure who they are or if they're the same. (And I'm heading out for the UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl so won't be doing any more research today.)

 

[Divin'Papaw]

According to D&B, $7.08 million (if they're the one is Gretna, Louisiana).

There's a second Divers Supply listed in Indianapolis that has $12 million in revenue. Not sure who they are or if they're the same. (And I'm heading out for the UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl so won't be doing any more research today.)

Divers’ Supply Indy (DSI) is not associated with the other Divers Supply. DSI is the shop I initially trained with. I don’t believe for a minute they do $12 million in sales a year.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Divers’ Supply Indy (DSI) is not associated with the other Divers Supply. DSI is the shop I initially trained with. I don’t believe for a minute they do $12 million in sales a year.

I don't think the number's accurate either. the address seemed familiar to me and it's also the address for Ikelite. I don't know if they own Divers Supply Indy or they're just in the same building, but $12M sounds more like a number for Ikelite.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I don't think the number's accurate either. the address seemed familiar to me and it's also the address for Ikelite. I don't know if they own Divers Supply Indy or they're just in the same building, but $12M sounds more like a number for Ikelite.

I agree. There is a relationship between the two for sure … Ikelite and Divers Supply Indy.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I agree. There is a relationship between the two for sure … Ikelite and Divers Supply Indy.

I looked again at D&B. Didn't notice that "Divers Supply Inc." is the corporate name for Ikelite (dba). So the $12.95M is most likely predominantly generated by Ikelite.

Here's the D&B link: https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.divers_supply_company_inc.fc7f959c0ea0da7efd80e1fa98115c62.html

 

[StefinSB]

I think the problem - and I've said this for years - is that we have a fatal flaw in the construct of the industry.
• Why do people want to get certified? So they can dive.
• So they have to go to a dive shop (or independent instructor) to get certified.
• Does the dive shop, post-class, then take them diving? No.
• The dive shop tries all they can to sell them more gear (beyond basic) and more classes.
• Did anyone reading this get certified because they wanted the privilege of buying gear or the ability to take more classes? IMHO, no.
• They got certified because they want to go dive and see things.
• Now ask yourselves how many dive shops really focus on taking people diving instead of selling them gear and more classes.
• And that, to me, is the problem with the industry.
• As a whole, we spend our efforts trying to get people we just certified to buy gear and classes.
• When they don't, we then recruit a new group to certify in hopes of selling THEM more gear and classes.
• And because we're too busy organizing the next class, we don't have time to satisfy the desire we helped create in them.
• Essentially, we create new customers and then fail at fulfilling the reason they came to us in the first place.
• And that's the essential problem with the business model of the dive industry. We simply don't give the people what they want so we have to constantly re-invent our customer base which doesn't leave us time to give the customers what they want.

I think Ken nailed it this time.

 

[DiveGearExpress]

According to Dun & Bradstreet, here's who's who in annual sales revenue:
Leisure Pro - $7.63 million
Scuba.com - $4.92 million
Dive Right In - $1.33 million
Scuba Toys - $1.23 million
Dive Gear Express - $590,000

Garbage! I have no idea how D&B has those numbers. But DGX has NEVER had annual sales revenue as low $590K, and I know those numbers to be ridiculously wrong for the other retailers as well.
Our annual revenue is no big secret, I did a presentation at DEMA in 2017 with revenue history, and more recently 2019 = $5.1M 2020 = $4.9M

 

[mderrick]

Indirectly, Ken has it right... lack of focus on the consumer is the cause (if not the source) of the disfunction.

I recently had a conversation with an insider touching on this issue... IMO, the main source of the disfunction in our industry is the wholesale vendors supplying the retailers. As long as the dive industry wholesale suppliers go to extraordinary lengths to protect our dive retailers from competitive pressures, the decline will continue. (How extraordinary? So much so that in many nations other than the US, their behaviors are considered illegal.) In the US dive marketplace the dive retailers are hyper-competitive amongst themselves... essentially cutting their own throats while simultaneously shooting themselves in the foot with lack of focus on the consumer. Not all of them of course, but enough that our sport suffers.

The "cure" if there could be said to be one, is that the wholesale suppliers must stop thinking of the retailers as their customers. It is the end consumer that is their customer, the "local dive shop" is but a single channel (among many) for their goods to reach the ultimate consumer. Every major dive brand should have a direct-to-consumer sales and fulfilment channel at reasonable retail prices that leave no room for the local retailers to offer so-called "discounts" off of egregious prices. Then the retailers will have to figure out how to be profitable without "churning" customers, instead focusing on the consumer and offering appropriate value add services. Unfortunately I don't see this happening anytime soon, even with the accelerated shift in consumer behaviors triggered by the pandemic.