Family business lands Olympics contract
Pompano company to supply floating docks
Beating out big global rivals, a family business from Pompano Beach has won a contract to supply floating docks for the 2016 Summer Olympics rowing competition in Brazil.
It took AccuDock employees about a month to build the custom docks at the company’s factory off Powerline Road. The last of nine 40-foot shipping containers with supplies is set to leave Florida this week, so the docks can be ready for rowing tests this summer in Rio de Janeiro.
AccuDock founder John Harrison said the contract is “worth millions,” among the largest yet for a company that began in 2007 with a simple idea: to build a sturdy “working float” you could stand on when cleaning the sides of boats from the water. That plastic float is designed to replace makeshift options such as working from a piece of plastic foam with plywood on top.
Harrison and his son Jason then tweaked and expanded their concept to docks. When an Orlando-area customer said rowers would prefer docks a couple of inches lower to the water for their races, the Harrisons obliged. They swapped out their month-old installation at no cost and built a reputation for customization.
The rowing community took note. AccuDock was chosen to provide floating docks for the 2013 World Rowing Championships in South Korea and more recently supplied docks for Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, which will host the 2017 World Rowing Championships.
“There are not many competitors that can get as low to the water as we can,” said Jason Harri- son, 28, who runs the fast-growing business. “We can build to order, when others can’t.”
That’s partly because AccuDock makes its products by hand, not from molds. It builds docks from plastic foam encased in polyethylene sheets — a plastic similar to what is used in pickup bed liners. And it welds the sheets together with plastic, using all U.S. materials.
“Having our U.S.-made, U.S.-sourced materials going to the Olympics is worth more than the dollar amount,” said John Harrison, 58. He spoke during a tour of his clean, well-organized factory that has earned tough-to-obtain ISO certification for its standardized procedures.
It’s not just rowers or Olympics organizers who are impressed.
Marina Products, a division of Decks and Docks Lumber of Clearwater, used to make its own floating docks but switched to selling AccuDock’s product, said Lois Laing, general manager of the chain’s Dania Beach locale.
AccuDock employs 30 people making docks, aluminum gangways and other products that float — even some topped with 40-foot-high scaffolding to be used alongside U.S. Navy ships. That’s a big change from making one key item with five employees just five years ago.