MDL Marinas commits over £7m to maintain quality of customer experience

MDL's Woolverstone Marina © Susannah Hart

Every year MDL Marinas reinvests millions of pounds to ensure that its 19 UK marinas and boatyards offer the best facilities and the ultimate customer experience both on and off the water.

This year has been no different despite rising costs, with MDL committing over £7 million to maintain its network of coastal and inland marinas to the level of excellence that its berth holders, visitors and tenants have come to expect.

This commitment means safe and secure access to the water for boat owners and marina users throughout the year, come rain or shine, with MDL spending in excess of £1.5 million on the replacement and re-decking of pontoons, quay walls upkeep and corrosion protection to continue to provide a modern, stable and anti-slip marina infrastructure.

In addition, all tides access at each of MDL's marinas is guaranteed with an extensive, on-going dredging schedule. This year, over £500K of expenditure has been devoted to dredging, with a further £500K focused on the refurbishment of onsite toilet and shower facilities and £400k invested in new plant, including two state-of-the-art dry stack forklifts.

As with any customer focused organisation, its staff are MDL's biggest asset. As such, MDL has invested in comprehensive training for its staff to ensure that each team member has the skills to support the expected exemplary level of customer service, from both an operational as well as a safety point of view.

Training this year included bespoke water safety training led by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's (RNLI) water safety experts and HSE First Aid at Work courses supporting MDL Marinas' culture of safety and security.

From an environmental perspective, and with a view to aiding boat owners who wish to make their boating as green as possible, MDL continues to invest in its green initiatives. This year has seen the production and display of informative signage on how to stop the spread of invasive species, the purchase of two new electric vehicles for the marinas, an expansion of electric work boats across the network including a project to refit the ex Brixham work boat, the fitting of multiple solar panels across the network and the installation of three Aqua superPower electric boat chargers with two more committed to.

Everything spent is linked to maintaining and improving the quality of customer experience, safeguarding the environment where MDL's loyal customers come to enjoy their leisure time.

"Our customers, and the experience they have across our network, are our priority," says Kerry Marriott, Head of Operations at MDL. "We endeavour to provide an exceptional service and for us to maintain this, we need to constantly spend and invest at each of our marinas. So much that we do is not obvious but would be very noticeable if it were not done.

"Costs of materials have risen substantially, in some cases over 90%, meaning we are having to pay more, just to maintain the same high level of service and experience for berth holders, visitors and tenants.

"We will continue to ensure that our marinas offer an excellent standard of customer service and experience in the years to come and have already allocated over £30 million to be spent in the next five years."

To find out more about MDL, its marinas, facilities and services please visit www.mdlmarinas.co.uk.