The last time anyone published a verified annual sales figure for Mercury outboards in the UK, the number was 2,500.
How Barrus Inherited the Contract
That was the volume reported by Sowester Simpson-Lawrence, the Poole-based distributor that held the Mercury UK import contract until it went into administration in October 2001. Motor Boat and Yachting reported at the time that Marine Power Europe, Mercury’s European arm, had terminated the contract and was transferring distribution to E.P. Barrus Ltd. The loss of Mercury, the magazine noted, was “the last straw” for Sowester. The company went into liquidation on November 7, 2001.
Barrus, already the UK distributor for Mercury’s sister brand Mariner since the 1970s, took on the Mercury outboard contract and has held it ever since.
A Market 100 Times Smaller
In the United States, the National Marine Manufacturers Association reported 278,000 outboard engines sold at retail in 2024, at a combined value of $3.6 billion. That was a down year, off 7.6 per cent from 2023. British Marine’s import data puts total UK outboard engine imports at around £22 million for 2021-22, a post-pandemic recovery year up roughly 40 per cent year-on-year. The US market is, by volume, roughly 100 times the size of Britain’s.
What the Numbers Suggest
Barrus has not published a Mercury sales figure since taking over the contract. Working from available public data, a rough calculation is possible: Mercury claims approximately 55 per cent of the European outboard market. Applied to British Marine’s £22 million UK import figure, that would suggest Mercury accounts for somewhere in the region of £10-12 million of UK outboard sales annually. At an average transaction value across the full range – weighted towards the smaller, lower-cost engines that dominate British recreational boating – a figure in the region of 2,000 units per year is plausible. That is a calculation, not a reported number, and the actual figure is not in the public domain.
Growing the Network
What is observable is that Barrus is actively working to grow its Mercury dealer base. Mercury Marine’s UK website maintains a live dealer application portal, and Barrus has made a series of area sales manager appointments in recent years specifically to develop marine dealer relationships across different regions.
The 3,000 Dealer Question
What Barrus does publish is a total dealer figure: “over 3,000 authorised dealers,” repeated in every piece of corporate literature for at least a decade. The same figure covers its entire operation across Marine, Garden, Industrial, and Vehicle divisions, representing more than 60 brands including Wilkinson Sword garden tools, Wolf Garten lawnmowers, and Segway Navimow robotic mowers. The Mercury marine dealer count has never been given separately.
In the US, 278,000 outboards sold in a single year is a bad year. In Britain, it may not be far off a lifetime’s supply.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
