Waddington Joins Sunsation Boats Owners Group, Fuels Expansion Plans

Thanks to a partnership that has blossomed during the last six years since Performance Boat Center in Osage Beach, Mo., signed on as dealer for Sunsation Boats in Algonac, Mich., the companies have taken their business relationship to the next level. Performance Boat Center co-owner Mark Waddington has joined the Sunsation owners group that includes brothers, Joe and Wayne Schaldenbrand, and Kyle Miller, Sunsation’s director of manufacturing.

The team at Sunsation Boats in Michigan welcomed Performance Boat Center’s Mark Waddington into its owners group with open arms. Photo by Brad DiMaggio/Sunsation Boats

According to Joe Schaldenbrand, everyone at Sunsation is beyond thrilled to have Waddington become an even more integral part of the team that he’s been a large proponent of for many years.

“Having Mark join the team just made sense,” Schaldenbrand said. “He’s such a stand-up guy—we all get along great. We put a lot of thought into this decision and concluded that Mark’s input, along with his team at Performance Boat Center, is invaluable. Mark has incredible business acumen and what I like best about him is that the decisions he makes are always in the best interest of the team.

“We’ve got a lot of things happening at the moment—we’re moving our office and final assembly into a new building during the next couple of weeks, and we purchased 22 acres and are going to start breaking ground on a whole new facility this year,” he continued. “It’s a busy time for us so having someone like Mark provide input and leadership and focus on long-term strategy is going to be game-changing for our business. We’re hopeful that we can expand production and supply more boats to Performance Boat Center and to our other dealers. Performance does an exceptional job for us, including representing Sunsation at boat shows and poker runs around the country. We have the job of building the boats, but the PBC team has the job of selling the boats, servicing the boats and delivering them to the customers.”

Schaldenbrand added that Waddington is going to be instrumental in pretty much everything related to the new factory.

“I am super excited about the future of Sunsation,” said Waddington, who owns Performance Boat Center with Brett Manire. “From Performance Boat Center’s perspective, Sunsation has been the best partner. They listen to our feedback and we listen to them. We have a really good day-to-day working relationship that I am sure is only going to get stronger.”

The Performance Boat Center team has been representing Sunsation at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks and beyond since 2015. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

Waddington said the first hurdle Sunsation is working to clear is getting things in place so that building Sunsation’s three Center Console Xtreme models—the 32 CCX, 34 CCX and 40 CCX—becomes more efficient and streamlined, in turn increasing production. From there, the focus will turn to the company’s new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and, eventually, to the development of new models.

“At the end of the day, we need boats to sell and we know we can sell Sunsations so our goal is to get to a point where the volume is not as limited,” Waddington added. “It’s going to take time—growing a business always does—but I feel like the potential is unlimited.”

Editor’s note: Speedonthewater.com will report on Sunsation’s expansion into its temporary facility as well as its new construction plans.

Waddington Joins Sunsation Boats Owners Group, Fuels Expansion Plans

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