by Jean Sealey
Northeast Florida Builders Association
When a project on the water needs to be done in Northeast Florida, the name Robinson Marine Construction often comes up.
The Northeast Florida Builders Association member company is family-owned and operated: Tom oversees the actual projects and is the most hands on, Matt handles proposals, and Rob is in charge of meeting with clients, as well as doing accounting and financials of the company. Rob had been a manager at several companies before starting Robinson Marine in 1998. Tom and Matt Robinson did construction work throughout high school and college, so it was a natural next step for them to get into construction for the family company.
Robinson Marine Construction builds and installs retaining walls, bulkheads, wooden bridges, demolition, docks, boathouses, boat and personal watercraft lifts, nature trails and other similar structures.
The quality marine-grade materials used by Robinson Marine offer superiority in weathering the elements. The company is equipped to handle inspections, permitting, construction, surveys and many other associated areas in the marine field. Robinson Marine handles projects on the St. Johns River from South Georgia to St. Augustine.
Annette Robinson, vice president of marketing, says the company’s pricing is very competitive in the industry.
“The key is customers get excellent value for their money,” she said. “On marine projects, as in any complex project, there are many areas where a contractor can cut corners, and the companies that compete aggressively on price often cut a lot of corners.”
Robinson explained that a contractor may offer to do a job for a very low price, but the quality of materials used and the workmanship are often less than competent - and the client suffers in the long run.
“One of the hardest things to explain to clients is that you get what you pay for,” she said. “We take pride in the quality of our work and if something goes wrong, we will fix it.”
On any Robinson Marine job, the client has the ability to see what vendors and materials were used.
The company has 14 employees, including the family, and is growing but prefers to grow slower with more quality. This allows them to attract employees who will stay with the company long term. It also gives Robinson Marine time to properly train their employees.
The company has Workman’s Comp and Liability Insurance, which can be very reassuring for clients.
The company is fully licensed and insured. With the amount of development and redevelopment going on in Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties, there is never a shortage of marine work, but Robinson Marine is not necessarily about doing a lot of projects at once.
“It is more important to us to do a supreme job on a smaller number of projects,” Robinson said.