Page 11: of Marine News Magazine (October 2023)

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All images: Markey

LeCoque executive vice president, in 1996. In 2000, the two men bought out the Markey family, which had owned the enterprise since its founding. Now partners,

Dempke and LeCoque were united in their mission— of continuing the advance of Markey products’ high quality and engineering excellence. Indeed, these had become the hallmarks of Markey products over many decades. A number of new ideas were implemented to improve the business, thus gaining ef? ciencies through changes necessary to keep Markey competitive in its sec- ond century of operations.

Markey’s technical innovations have won acclaim, gar- nering a number of industry awards—and perhaps more importantly, repeat business from its faithful customers in the hard-working maritime sector.

Markey announced last year that it lined up outside in- vestment to help grow the company. How did this deal come to be, and what do expansion plans look like?

We didn’t view this so much as a way to help grow the company, although this is certainly happening now, only 12 months after taking those steps. More so, we were committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure conti- nuity and survivability, something of a challenge for what was at that time a small closely-held family business. By this time, my son, Jeff Dempke was more involved in day-to-day operation and helped immensely in our pur- arkey was a major supplier to the U.S. Navy suit of the “perfect buyer”, not your typical private-equity in both world wars, its employment peaking buyer looking to maximize pro? ts in the short term but at near 400 in WW2, with 24/7 operations, rather a person or company that was in it for the long as the company built winches for jeep tugs haul, that recognized there are times that pro? ts have to and mercy ships especially. be set aside in order to get the job done and meet our

M At this time its outstanding efforts, in ful? lling orders, own high standards. After almost four years of talking were acknowledged at the highest level in the form of the to a lot of people, we were fortunate to run into Chris-

Army-Navy E Award (February 1943). During WW2, Mar- tian Schiller and Brian Bogen, Seattle-natives themselves, key built winches for jeep tugs and mercy ships especially. both aware of the marine industry and Markey’s reputa-

In 1978, Blaine Dempke and Bob LeCoque joined tion for quality. Six months later we had new majority the company, starting out at the bottom. LeCoque was a owners. I continue to hold a minority interest and run helper in the machine shop, while Dempke was a draft- the business, along with Jeff, day-to-day. With our new er-in-training in the engineering department, later un- ownership we have access to new resources and skillsets dertaking an intensive business course curriculum at the that will serve the company well as we grow and adapt to

University of Washington. Both men were promoted the ever-changing business demands. We are considering as they gained experience, ultimately moving into the several logical market subsectors for expansion opportu- top positions: Dempke was appointed president, and nity, such as ? oating offshore wind.

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