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One of the most successful boatbuilding companies in the world, Grady-White has a legendary reputation for designing and producing outstanding fiberglass boats. But like many successful enterprises, it beginnings were comparatively humble. Glenn Grady and Don White founded Grady-White Boats in Greenville, NC, back in 1958, and hired local craftsmen to build wooden boats in the coastal Carolina handcrafted tradition. The business outlook seemed bright, Grady and White dedicated themselves to quality, and they planned to grow their company through the increasing demand for coastal pleasure craft. The first Gradys were small, tough "works of art," with flared bows and lapstrake sides starting with steamed white oak frames and planking, all joined with brass bolts and nuts. The process was labor intensive, but employed sure-fire concepts used in larger Carolina custom sportfishing boats. Grady-White's founders believed that if they used those concepts, and crafted boats "tougher than they had to be," that these smaller boats would stand up reliably to coastal waves and weather. Grady and White got it right.
The year that Grady-White was founded, present day Chairman and CEO Eddie Smith was a high school boy in Lexington, NC, hundreds of miles from the coast in North Carolina's upper Piedmont, an area famous for hosiery, furniture and textile manufacturing. No one, least of all Eddie, would have guessed that life ultimately would lead him into the Hall of Fame of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA). But, the outdoors captured his imagination and Eddie was an avid sportsman even then, learning to hunt and fish with his father, Edward C. Smith, Sr.
As a young man, Eddie learned much more from his dad than a keen love of the outdoors. His father had built (and continues to nurture even today) a successful hosiery and apparel mail order business, National Wholesale, and instilled in Eddie Jr. the fundamental idea that success in business derives from dedication to unquestionable integrity, valuing and treating co-workers exceptionally well, truly appreciating and valuing customers, and striving for perfection in quality. The father also showed his son by example that it was good business to give back to his industry, to employees, community and to the important passions in his life.
In 1960, Eddie Smith packed his bags and moved to Chapel Hill to enroll in his much beloved University of North Carolina.
"I had a great time in college," remembers Eddie. "Why not? I knew that when I graduated I was going to work in the family business and sell hosiery." With his future certain, Eddie did indeed enjoy the college years. The highlight of his college years was meeting Jo Allison Clary of Winston Salem who, very soon, became Mrs. Edward C. Smith, Jr. The future came quickly for Eddie: the Monday after graduation, he started work at National Wholesale. "I knew early on that this type of business was not where my passion was," recalls Eddie. "but I continued to work and learn there for three years."
One day during those years at National Wholesale, Eddie received a phone call. "I'd learned to fly at Chapel Hill," Eddie remembers. "A guy there in the automotive business called me and said, 'I've got sort of an emergency. I need to fly to Greenville and meet with someone. Could you possibly take me down?' I said sure. That someone we met was Don White, the co-founder of Grady-White Boats."
As it turned out, what had been a successful Grady-White Boats was somewhat less successful by 1968, as Grady-White was a little behind the changeover to fiberglass manufacturing. By 1968, "Glenn and Don were at the point of wanting to sell the company," recalls Eddie Smith.
Eddie Smith was energetic, 26 years young, and recognized what he believed to be an enormous opportunity. Here was a company with all the ingredients for Eddie to exercise his entrepreneurial instincts. Grady-White boats were an exciting, superior quality, outdoor-oriented product with a great reputation. This was Eddie's chance to engage the business principles he'd taken to heart regarding customers, co-workers, integrity and quality.
"My dad was supportive when I approached him to buy Grady-White," says Eddie. "He knew I was burning inside to mark my own trail, and secretly he figured if he gave me a shot, that failure was inevitable and that I would settle down in the family business. After all, what did I know about turning a company around, or production, or anything about boat building?" Regardless of the reasons, the Smith family stepped forward and bought Grady-White in 1968.
"So here I am," recalls Eddie, "trying to prove to myself that I can be successful with this boat company. I was seriously driven, probably at the expense of my family and my health. In the early years, I never took a vacation. Never took a day off including Saturday and Sunday. The fear of failing made us simply outwork many other companies in the business."
Smith knew that if he was to succeed in his aim to make customers happy, he must create a superior manufacturing company. Knowing that this was not a job that he himself could do, Smith found Wiley Corbett, a man with fabulous talents in manufacturing and engineering, and convinced Wiley to come on board as executive vice-president plant operations and engineering. The company very quickly completed the conversion to fiberglass manufacturing, and Smith and Corbett ensured that the final transition to fiberglass did not come at the expense of Grady-White's reputation for superior quality. Early on, Eddie and Wiley jumped into sportfishing with both feet, anxious to learn the sport and the various ways customers used their boats. So they arranged fishing trips with customers and top fishermen and they regularly fished for fun. Eddie not only became a very proficient fisherman, he became internationally known for his fishing skills and knowledge and has been invited to the Masters Sailfishing Tournament for several years. And they began to listen very, very carefully to customers and potential customers in the growing market for sportfishing boats.
Eddie also wisely recognized that he must have the absolute best distribution system to ensure customer satisfaction. Pretty soon Eddie established his sales team adding Jim Stoneman and Pete Furman with Bing Fishman who was already on board. All became enthusiastic proponents of Eddie's customer-driven high quality products and began preaching excellence and quality to the dealership network. All three men took a lesson from Eddie's book and listened, truly listened, to dealers and their customers about what they wanted in a great boating experience.
Grady-White persevered through those transition years because of the employees who have worked for Eddie Smith. Eddie is a tough taskmaster, but he truly appreciates his co-workers, and they understand his passionate desire to "get things right." B.J Eakes, a 30-year production employee at Grady-White, says, "If there's a problem, he wants it fixed right now. There are no right words to say how much he cares for his customers and his employees."
Eddie sticks with his employees, and they certainly stick with him. Many have been there for decades; senior managers all have from 13 to 37 years with the company. Caring and continuity are Grady-White company traditions. Through tough economic climates and good years, through hurricanes, floods, and also the fairest of weather, Eddie and his management team have built an incredibly loyal family of experienced workers, managers and dealers at Grady-White who are the envy of the industry. In late 1972, with Wiley Corbett's guidance and a great team of employees at his side, Eddie and Grady-White broke ground for one of the world's most modern boat manufacturing facilities. The stage was set for growth
By listening to customers, Grady-White began perfecting center console designs. The openness of center consoles allowed easy movement around the boat, with room for the installation of rod holders and racks that people wanted. Grady-White equipped models with all kinds of ingenious features such as nonskid decks, self bailing cockpits, plus insulated storage and ice boxes that drain directly overboard and foam flotation resulting in unsinkable boats. The center console soon became the style of choice among many boat buyers.
So the Grady-White team moved the console forward and made a cuddy cabin. That provided space for a real windshield on which canvas protection could be mounted. Now, a boat had the benefit of a walkaround console, plus the protection of a cabin with room for a bunk and even a head. Thus Grady-White began to manufacture one of the earliest walkaround cabins, the Hatteras 204-C Overnighter. It was, as company literature put it, "The comfortable move to a fishing machine." It wasn't the first walkaround cabin. But because the details of the Grady model came from customer input, Eddie believed it was the best.
People were curious about the cross between a center console and a cuddy. At the New York Boat Show in 1975, recalls Smith, a middle-aged couple was among the first customers to look the boat over. "The wife called it the ugliest boat she'd ever seen," remembered Smith. "I was crushed." Later the couple came back, heard the story about the 360-degree access around the boat, the small but comfortable cuddy, the room for a private head, and the protection of an encloseable helm. At the end of the day they returned to the Grady-White booth. "They understood the concept, and they bought the boat!"
"Built by fishermen" became a company slogan. The love for bluewater fish and fishing evolved into Grady-White achieving top rank among small sportfishing boats. Eddie, Wiley and the team were not usually the innovators of design, but they were very often the ones who perfected the designs. Through the notes and scribbles they brought back from boat shows and fishing trips, Grady-White's products did become the first to put the right combination of features and materials on the boats they built. They were the first to put the focus on family fishing boats. And they were the first to really focus on making customers exceedingly happy. That focus has built arguably the best customer-company relationships in the industry.
Once during the 1980s, Eddie had great cause for concern that he would lose his most precious asset, his customers. Seems that a bad resin supply was creating a problem with secondary bonding and Grady-White was shipping boats that had the potential to delaminate! Eddie shut down production for three months and sent his team on the road with a plan to do what it took to satisfy customers. Doug Gomes, today's vice-president of sales and marketing, remembers knocking on the door of a lawyer on Long Island. "You mean I'm not going to have to sue anyone? You're going to replace the hull?" the customer asked, astonished at the visit's purpose. That was one customer Eddie delighted. And there were many others.
In 1989, Grady-White reached another milestone with the Marlin 28. The Marlin introduced the C. Raymond Hunt and Associates/Grady-White exclusive SeaV2 hull, a new design with a "continuously variable" vee shape that provides a very soft dry ride while the boat is cruising or running and stability when the boat is trolling or at the dock. The hull was a natural evolution for customers going further offshore who desired a softer, more comfortable ride for their families. By the early '90s, all Grady models sported a SeaV2 hull.
"The '80s and '90s were interesting. The demand was so high we literally could have grown 300-400%," recalls Smith. "But instead, we stayed true to our deliberate decision to limit production. We felt this was the only way to maintain our high quality and customer satisfaction.
Another gutsy call was Eddie's selection in 1993 of a new president of Grady-White Boats to replace Wiley Corbett, who was retiring. The position was coveted throughout the marine industry. Eddie knew what had created success for his debt-free, customer focused company. He knew that he wanted someone who would "do the right thing." So Eddie chose Kris Carroll, a woman, a "feisty Yankee from Massachusetts" who had joined Grady-White in 1975 as a production control clerk and had risen through the ranks. She clearly understood Eddie's focus on the customer, and his desire to take that focus to a new level. Eddie's choice absolutely astonished the industry; at the time, Kris was the first woman in such a position. But Eddie knew his customers were family fishermen, and he knew Kris believed in his goals. Kris has taken the company to new heights partly with her motivational skills and certainly with the tried and true Grady-White process: customer involvement to ensure satisfaction.
So success continues. The most recent major product triumph is Grady-White's 33-foot Express 330, the company's biggest boat to date. Grady's Express 330 was widely praised, along with strategic partner Yamaha Marine, for once again taking modern outboard power to a new level.
To Eddie Smith, boating and sportfishing are great gifts for our society. Thus Grady-White under Smith always has been involved with industry trade associations and legislative efforts to ensure boating is treated fairly and equitably in Washington.
Don Rocheleau, former chairman of Attwood Corporation, the world largest supplier of hardware and accessories for pleasure boats, remembers, "In 1978 and 1979, when it all began for NMMA, Eddie was unquestionably the principal proponent and enthusiast behind the merger of the Boating Industry of America (BIA) and the National Association of Engine and Boat Manufacturers (NAEBM) into the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Eddie has done immeasurable good for this industry."
When it became obvious that fisheries stocks were in decline, Eddie became a steadfast advocate of fisheries conservation, management and education. Eddie's belief in conservation causes has had a collateral benefit. Grady-White's stature and success has developed in large part due to Eddie's keen sense of the importance of the relationship between fishing and boating. In 2001, the American Sportfishing Association recognized Eddie with its first-ever lifetime achievement award.
"Over the years, the ASA has recognized a few unique individuals for their long-term contribution to business and conservation interests," stated Norville S. Prosser, ASA vice-president. "When we started thinking of people that steadfastly exhibit leadership in fisheries conservation, particularly those with feet and heart firmly planted in both the boating and fishing worlds, one name surfaced early and often."
Eddie Smith served on the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council by a Presidential appointment and is on the Recreational Roundtable Committee. He is active with the Billfish Foundation, the Coastal Conservation Association, Fish America Foundation, the Recreational Fishing Alliance, National Coalition for Marine Conservation, Ducks Unlimited, Quail Unlimited, Wild Turkey Federation, the North Carolina Aquariums and many local and regional environmental, education and conservation-oriented organizations. Eddie was formerly on the Board of Trustees for International Gamefish Association, and received IGFA's most prestigious conservation award in January 2001 for his leadership and personal commitment to fisheries conservation.
Eddie Smith was inducted into the NMMA Hall of Fame during the 2003 Miami International Boat Show in February. In his remarks at the induction ceremony, he said, "We need to do everything we can to keep boating in a leadership position in recreation in America. We have an awesome product to sell: we provide leisure, fun, and maybe best of all, a wonderful family activity-something our country desperately needs more of! We also have a huge obligation to future generations, to do all that we can to ensure them a great environment, clean waterways, and healthy and abundant fishery resources."
As a result of customer intimacy and his belief in doing "the right thing," Eddie Smith has consistently made the tough decisions for long-term quality both in products and people. He has gathered management, craftsmen and dealerships, all who share his natural tendency to "sweat the details." That quality is reflected in Grady-White Boats being ranked Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Coastal Fishing Boats Two Years in a Row*-each of the two years to date that J.D. Power and Associates has conducted studies in the market segment.
Today, thousands of people in small boats safely and confidently pursue game fishing and other adventures far offshore. The safety, comfort and confidence these boaters experience, even amid growing seas and gathering weather, is in large measure a product of Eddie Smith's unyielding dedication to his customers. He has built a very successful boat company, and in the process he has furthered the entire recreational marine industry.
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Most Expensive GRADY-WHITE Yachts on Yacht Council |
Largest GRADY-WHITE Yachts on Yacht Council |
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 33' (10.1 m)
2005
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
229,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Galati Yacht Sa... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2007
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
189,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
MarineMax - Des... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2002
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
183,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
United Yacht Sa... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2006
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
179,900 USD
Yacht Listed By
Galati Yacht Sa... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2003
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
175,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Black Pearl Yac... |
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35'10" (10.9 m)
2004
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
165,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Bollman Yachts |
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33' (10.1 m)
2004
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
159,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Allied Marine -... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2003
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
159,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Sarasota Yacht ... |
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30' (9.1 m)
2005
GRADY-WHITE
158,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
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28' (8.5 m)
2007
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
129,900 USD
Yacht Listed By
Bluewater Yacht... |
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35'10" (10.9 m)
2004
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
165,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Bollman Yachts |
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33' (10.1 m)
2005
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
229,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Galati Yacht Sa... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2007
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
189,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
MarineMax - Des... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2002
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
183,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
United Yacht Sa... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2006
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
179,900 USD
Yacht Listed By
Galati Yacht Sa... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2003
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
175,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Black Pearl Yac... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2004
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
159,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Allied Marine -... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2003
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
159,000 USD
Yacht Listed By
Sarasota Yacht ... |
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33' (10.1 m)
2002
GRADY-WHITE
Cruiser
119,900 USD
Yacht Listed By
Executive Yacht... |
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30'6" (9.3 m)
2002
GRADY-WHITE
Sport Fisherman
102,900 USD
Yacht Listed By
Naples Yacht Br... |
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