Concept Marine Design continues to be in high demand

By Alex Wichert

Concept Marine Design is the Eastern Canada Certified Fabricator for SeaDek Marine Products located in the industrial park of Terrebonne, Québec. The company has seen overwhelming boons through its installation and subsequent fabrication of SeaDek products; SeaDek itself is a non-skid, closed-cell PE/EVA, UV-protected and non-absorbent foam which provides a safe, comfortable, and customizable marine carpet that is easy to install. We spoke with Albert Zaccour, associate, for the inside story on what makes Concept Marine Design so successful.
Concept Marine Design was originally a very strong, SeaDek-certified installer. Year after year saw profit, doubling and tripling revenue in Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and The Maritimes. After sitting among the top 10 in North America, Jonathan Bibeau – the company’s founder & president – decided to become a fabricator and purchase a plant. It was at this point the company began fabricating SeaDek products.

How do they manufacture these products? The American SeaDek headquarters fabricates different thicknesses, textures, and colours before delivering large sheets to Concept Marine Design; the latter proceeds with onsite digital templating and measurement services. These services take very detailed looks at the boat, using sophisticated 3D digital technology that involves simple to complex shapes, CAD/CAM drawings for precision manufacturing requirements, and highly precise cuts – 0.1 mm in exactness – through advanced machine cutting technology called Computerized Numerical Control (CNC). In a word, CNC involves routing and milling of custom-designed, individual SeaDek pads or entire SeaDek boat kits, customized bevels, contours, logos or designs, and professional installation services.
Naturally, Concept Marine Design has invested heavily this year in a larger plant space, equipment, a lift truck, additional technology, office space, software, computers, a workforce which has doubled in size, and other vital features. Such investments have paid off: the company can order thousands of sheets at one time and is capable of all engineering, fabricating, and installation by its own network of SeaDek’s Certified Installers.

Despite its success, the company has not forgotten its roots. Albert points out that all employees are local professionals. Their installers, meanwhile, are situated across several provinces from eastern Canada: Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and The Maritimes. Concept Marine Design is expanding within these provinces with up to 21 additional SeaDek-certified installers. Albert is proud of the company’s inter-provincial success; they receive orders from across the region and are the only fabricator in eastern Canada.
It’s a good thing the company is so organized. After all, Albert notes that business significantly increased this year with numerous boating customers. They had, as Albert says, “a beautiful shock.” Demand may have been high but so too was safety amid the pandemic. Concept Marine Design set up an e-commerce platform with an extensive database of boat mold designs and utilized its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for all orders. Their ERP system covers all aspects of the company, from accounting to production to human resources, inventory, and sales. Clearly, Concept Marine Design is ready for the future.
What, then, does the future hold for this company? They have received many different Seadek boat orders for 2021, including special requests such as designs for the insides and outsides of pools. While their priority market is still in the boating world, the company will – in time – put in place specific products for specific consumers.

No matter their endeavor, though, you can be sure Concept Marine Design will apply a steady cut – right down to that tenth of a millimetre.