Today its marine engine business is one of the longest standing and most successful in the UK, selling and distributing John Deere, Yanmar, Shire, MerCruiser and Mariner engines, and last year it became only the second company in the UK to achieve ISO9001/2000 to the new BVQI standard covering design, development and production of all its products.

However, even with a long and successful history like that, Barrus' success in winning the Mercury franchise ranks very highly in its list of achievements.

Barrus was awarded the exclusive Mercury outboard motor franchise for the UK and Ireland by Marine Power Europe, Mercury Marine's operating company for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

This represents an enormous boost for Barrus, which has held the exclusive Mariner outboard motor franchise for 25 years and, more recently, the MerCruiser franchise, but although the Barrus team is justly proud to have added the high performance Mercury brand to its marine portfolio, it is under no illusion about the challenge this represents.

Aiming for top spot

Barrus aims to make the Mercury brand as successful as it has Mariner - and last year Mariner was number one in the UK.

"It was our best ever year, an all time record with the Mariner brand, " said Paul Roberts, General Manager of the Marine Leisure Division, responsible for both the Mercury and Mariner teams. "Sales are up on the outboard side, parts side and aluminium boats. And that is largely down to our dealerships and training."

In order to achieve its goal, Barrus is establishing a standalone exclusive Mercury dealer network that is completely separate from Mariner. It has already put in place a dedicated sales and internal support team.

Next it will be concentrating on raising the quality of the dealer network to the high standards achieved with the Mariner brand.

Dealing with dealerships

"We looked at the Mercury dealerships and were appalled by what we found. They are nowhere near the quality we have on the Mariner side, " Roberts explained. "Our job will be to build them up, and appoint new people where we think fit and talk to new OEM accounts - fishing, RIB, day boats, mirroring what the Mariner guys have being doing for so many years."

Barrus admits some dealers may not make the grade, but it is adamant setting up a top quality network is its main priority.

New marketing

Barrus is also planning new and very different marketing for Mercury. "Our goal is for the consumer to see a difference between the two brands - Mariner is Landrover, and Mercury is Jaguar. That's our mission", said Roberts, "and there is probably no other company better placed to achieve this, both financially and structurally speaking".

Barrus has three sites in Bicester covering over 200,000 square feet in total. The main building incorporates workshop, research and development, and testing facilities that are among the best in Europe, including the only sterndrive test rig and dynometer test cells to be found in the UK.

On the financial side, 50 per cent of the business is privately owned and 50 per cent owned by the American company, MTD (Modern Tool and Die), which has 11 factories in the US, Canada, Germany and Hungary and sales offices throughout the world.

No shareholders are taking any money out of the company, and the only funds taken out are those paid to staff as part of a profit related bonus scheme.

Everything else is reinvested. All the company's assets are owned, not leased - apart from those that belong to the army - and because it is not renting or paying out money to bankers, its overheads are some of the lowest in the business.

Barrus puts its success down to having a professional dealer network that gives excellent coverage in all key areas, a next day spare parts delivery service, the best technical support, a realistic warranty policy and, most important of all excellent technical trainers.

It regards training as the key to providing excellent customer service and this is where it will be focussing its attention as it brings the Mercury dealer network up to speed.

As for how much Barrus will be putting into developing the Mercury brand, Robert Glen describes it "a finite figure".

"It's going to be growing for a year. We will be taking it a step at a time. We want to build Mercury back up but ultimately the customers must chose, " said Glen.

And in order to that, said Glen, Barrus has first got to provide them with a good Mercury dealer network from which they can buy.