Cruise Craft & Wynnum Marine join for 70th birthday bash

THE Nichols Brothers family business, which owns and operates Cruise Craft boat manufacturing and Wynnum Marine, celebrated its 70th birthday in style with a glitzy party.

Nichols Brothers was established on August 12, 1946, and fittingly the 70th birthday celebration was hosted on August 12, 2016. To excel in the marine industry for 70 years, through the boom times and the tough years, is an outstanding testament to the strength and values embodied in the two Nichols Brothers businesses.

More than 200 invited marine industry guests attended the 70-year birthday party. The assembled group listened intently to present-day director Nathan Nichols as he spoke with pride and passion about the family business.

“Over the past 70 years a lot has changed, but some things have remained a constant,” Mr Nichols said. “Our family’s passion for this industry, the people who we do business with and the people we work with are still the most important things we have.

“They have been behind the success of our family business for the past 70 years and hopefully for the next 70 years ahead.”

On August 12, 1946, Roy Nichols and his brothers started a family business building and repairing fishing dinghies, putt putts, hire boats and net dinghies. Wynnum Marine today stands on the very site where Roy Nichols started his boat building venture 70 years ago. While boat building has always been at the core of the Nichols family enterprise, expansion has also been a driver over the 70-year journey.

Wynnum Marine was set up in the 1950s to sell marine hardware. Cruise Craft was born in the 1960s and the company was among the first to make the transition from timber boat building to fibreglass. The 1970s started with the massive challenge of rebuilding the Cruise Craft factory after it was destroyed by fire.

Cruise Craft and Wynnum Marine flourished through the ‘80s and ‘90s. This was in spite of the ‘recession we had to have’ and challenging times from American imports.

In the new millennium, fresh opportunities were seized. Wynnum Marine was appointed a Yamaha dealer, gained the Stacer franchise and became an agent for MasterCraft. Cruise Craft introduced new hull shapes and manufacturing techniques, the third generation of the Nichols family assumed management and the global financial crisis was met head on.

Seventy years strong and with the third-generation Nichols boys at the helm, the future of Nichols Brothers is in very capable hands. Cruise Craft is a wholly family owned, third-generation Australian boat manufacturing business, operating from its Brisbane manufacturing facility. Cruise Craft boats are distributed exclusively through a network of authorised dealers throughout Australia and selected international markets.

Wynnum Marine is the Brisbane home of Cruise Craft boats. The dealership is an authorised dealer for Cruise Craft, MasterCraft and Stacer as well as Yamaha outboard engines.

For further information, contact Cruise Craft on 07 3390 4877 or visit www.cruisecraft.com.au or www.wynnummarine.com.au