SHAPING FUTURE: Surfboard maker Dennis Ellis at his factory, The Boardroom. Picture: BRIAN WITBOOI
IT’S a rare breed of entrepreneur who can keep an enterprise afloat in a tough niche market environment increasingly swamped by big business. Dennis Ellis – owner of The Boardroom and arguably the last of Port Elizabeth’s mainstream, professional surfboard shapers – is such an entrepreneur.
A household name in the Bay’s long-established surfing community, 46-year-old Ellis has spent the last 15 years building up his business, his brand and his cutting-edge surfing gear from his Brickmakers Kloof Road factory not far from the Port Elizabeth Harbour.
Talking business, surfing and stiff competition from “the big factory boys” from his newly revamped and “funked-up” factory reception area, Ellis outlined how he had managed to shape his own future, his business and his own niche in South Africa’s surf economy.
Raised in Port Elizabeth where he still spends much of his spare time in the waters of Algoa Bay and its surrounds, Ellis enjoys what is arguably a highly enviable business life – one which combines his passion for the ocean and surfing with the business of creating quality, custom-made surfboards for his customers.
Custom surfboard manufacturing is both a consultative and labour-intensive process and it can take up to a month to produce a single board.
Ellis, who is hands-on involved in the business, employees three people and strives to source all of his raw materials, as well as other surf equipment he retails from The Boardroom, locally.
While Ellis started shaping and repairing boards as a youngster, he cut his teeth in earnest in this specialist industry both in East London – where he once worked for surfing icon and famous shark attack survivor Andrew Carter – and later in Spain and Taiwan on an industrial scale.
And it’s this increasing proliferation of off-the-shelf or mass-produced surfboards which has steadily squeezed shapers out of the market.
“It is very tough to compete with the big boys. Thailand, for one, is producing surfboards en masse for retail around the world. So to compete in an environment like this, you would have to have a different business model and offering,” said Ellis, who pointed to Durban-based factories which pushed out thousands of boards a year, against the 300-odd he manufactures per annum.
“But there are some positive factors to take into account and take advantage of. The greater Port Elizabeth area, including Jeffreys Bay, has the third-largest surf population in the country,” Ellis said.
“Also, surfing has grown substantially in Port Elizabeth over the past three years, with far more women and girls taking it up. This is mostly because people, especially parents, are moving towards healthier lifestyles and are involving their kids and importantly because this area is a great, safe place to learn and continue surfing.”
Continuing, Ellis said he had gone on to focus on the custom-made board segment as an anchor of his business model.
“A surfboard is very personal to a surfer. Having a board custom-made means that the board will suit the surfer’s physical dimensions and ultimately improve the surfer’s enjoyment and performance.
“There is a consultation process before the board is made through which one actually builds a relationship with the surfer and even their families. In turn, this produces repeat business down the line,” said Ellis, adding high-quality work, proper consultation and customer satisfaction was therefore vital to successful business.
While having focused mainly on shortboards, Ellis has also long recognised the growing popularity and market for longboards and has of late adjusted his operations accordingly.
“There is a big and growing market for longboarding in Port Elizabeth. Longboards are ideally suited to surf conditions in the Bay, which is widely recognised as one of the best longboarding locations in the country,” Ellis enthused.
His tips for succeeding as a small business in a niche market environment, include striking the right balance between the time spent on manufacturing a product and the revenue received; be customer-focused and deliver the best quality and service, while developing long-term customer relationships,
Nationally known for developing the acclaimed Vetkoek – an innovative board design, Ellis also stressed that being at the cutting edge of new designs also played an important role in marketing his business and keeping it relevant in the surf economy.
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