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ASAP Supplies Celebrates 25 Years

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

March 21, 2014

Image: ASAP Supplies

Image: ASAP Supplies

On April 1, 2014, it will be 25 years since Peter Edwards & Mark Reynolds officially started trading as ASAP Supplies. At 36 and 26 respectively, they were working for a marine engine supply company, and when the company stopped promoting the smaller engines and spares, they found they greatly missed spending time working with customers and solving their technical problems.

Their aim and passion was to bring value to customers through technical support and knowledge. After many discussions about products and working with carefully selected Suppliers, ASAP Supplies was founded. They started in Peter’s double garage, adding a mobile van to deliver goods. A dramatic rise in demand meant they moved into office/warehouse units, with Peter’s twin brother Nigel joining early on. Today, the Company now employs some 32 staff in a building 10,000sq ft.

Armed with their knowledge and passion, they went into it as best they could, having no idea what the future would hold. Mark recalls the journey: “It was exciting, scary, a great learning curve, brought brilliant experiences and was VERY hard work. To see today the number of staff and where ASAP stands in the global market is still inspiring and makes it all worth it.” The free technical help for any customer as a standard part of supply proves extremely popular with customers.

Asked where the motivation comes from, Peter Edwards smiles, “Drive and passion comes when you want to nurture and grow something you’ve produced. We now enjoy seeing this spread amongst our staff. We have remained focused because we believed that we could deliver according to our name.”

Today there are three Directors, after Shaun Wigley joined the board as Managing Director. Keith Gregory also acts as non-executive Chairman of the board and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the whole operation. In the 25th year, they like to oversee whilst the team take their knowledge and move forward. But, they can’t help the drive that’s still within them and regularly make customer visits and exhibitions – National and International.

Their ethos is to try very hard to ensure that the first customer experience of ASAP makes them want to come back again, and there are some loyal customers who’ve used the company since day one. ASAP have always believed in NVQ training, staff development and people taking time to think about their job being key to their success.

Notable achievements were the first website going live in 1997 and first online store going live in 1999 – as well the catalogue, which has always been produced in-house, even designed fully in-house since 2008. Being appointed as Faria’s expedited Warehouse was a boost, as was the agreement to purchase direct from the USA since 1992.With trips to Chicago in the early days and other dreams in the ‘wide world’ lived out, the journey has been anything but dull.

The company aims to keep the close team that’s been built and provide solutions to customer queries – quickly and efficiently wherever you are, with 12,000+ quality stock lines and same day dispatch.

asap-supplies.com
 

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