Tayside business owner Ian Ashton is bouncing back with a new boat-trip venture after his last enterprise had to shut due to the impact of Covid.
The new Dundee enterprise, SaltDog Marine, began operations just under a year ago – and expectations are high that the firm will have a great summer ahead.
It was 2017 when Ian set up Pirate Boats offering boat tours on the Tay and up to Perth.
The entrepreneur said: “This was very quickly very popular, gaining great reviews and referrals.
“We also found that other businesses wanted to associate themselves with our popularity online so were able to access great free promotion from others.
“The most notable of these was the team at the Apex Hotel in Dundee who understood in those early days – and still do with SaltDog, and are very valued partners – that its customers having a great time meant repeat business and referrals for them.”
However, Pirate Boats had unfortunately to cease trading in 2020 due to the arrival of the pandemic making the business unviable.
Undeterred
But Ian was not to be deterred from his love of providing boat trips.
“We looked for investment in 2023 and were successful in finding a private-investment consortium who took a share in launching SaltDog Marine.
“ A new boat was found and purchased and we launched in late July last year.
“I deal with every aspect of the business myself – from marketing to logistics, accounts to websites and online booking platforms and dealing with the huge amount of correspondence that a tourism business naturally generates.
“But I also have support available from my investors, who have a huge amount of business experience if needed.”
Father and son
Ian said the team at SaltDog is mostly just him, but his son works part-time with him on trips on weekends and holidays.
The businessman said the best part about his job is working in a beautiful environment with customers who have signed up to have a good time.
“Spending hundreds of hours on the water frequently with bottlenose dolphins is an honour I always appreciate. I’m often told I have the best job in Dundee.
“SaltDog primarily offers tours of the Tay with people spending around 45min onboard with us.
“We pride ourselves in being able to impart the history and knowledge of this marine environment we have in a fun, friendly and hopefully interesting way.
“Many comments reflect that our customers did not expect to learn so much.
“This year, we also started Broughty Ferry to Tayport return trips, which we hope will be popular with local and tourists alike. The launch has been a superb marketing tool, prompting a huge amount of publicity.”
Ian said most customers at SaltDog are from areas surrounding Dundee, but he also sees numerous tourists from home and abroad.
Difficult start for SaltDog
However, the businessman revealed that the firm has had a difficult start to 2024.
He explained: “Very poor weather through the Easter holidays was followed by a very expensive engine repair on our boat, which is currently being repaired.
“We are lucky, however, that throughout our years on the water we’ve always tried to build relations with all the other stakeholders on the river. Thanks to this we are currently hiring an excellent replacement vessel from David Anderson Marine. David and Liz Anderson have been extremely helpful.”
But Ian is delighted to report SaltDog is currently pulling in large numbers of customers, having taken hundreds out in the first month of this season.
He went on: “We are set up to have a great summer. We need to continue building on success and hopefully arrive at the end of the season with a solid balance sheet ready to expand for the future.
“We are still in the phase of re-establishing our service post-Covid. We are creating a base from which to expand.”
So what are the biggest opportunities for SaltDog going forward?
Ian said: “We are essentially a guided-tour business. There’s some pretty obvious diversification off the water that we will be turning our attention to at the right time.”
Five years from now, he hopes to see these diversification plans in action, along with an expansion of the firm’s fleet and bases.
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