New Zealand-based boat building company Stabicraft has expanded its operations by opening a manufacturing plant in Seattle.
The news was reported in late November by New Zealand news and information website Stuff.
Stabicraft, which is continuing to build aluminum boats in New Zealand, has also opened a Seattle location due to increased sales in the U.S, chief executive David Glen has said, and plans to focus on efforts on manufacturing and growth into the American market.
“We see considerable growth opportunity in the USA,” was quoted by Stuff as saying. “We have been successful in growing our sales there, but the reality is our production capacity here in Invercargill is constrained in terms of (shortage of) skilled labor.”
“In this post-COVID world, it’s both difficult and expensive getting boats to the USA, so we took the decision to set up a manufacturing operation over there,” Glen explained.
Stabicraft, which was founded in 1987, has dealerships in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and British Columbia. It is New Zealand’s largest boat manufacturer and builds more than 1,000 boats annually and exports boats worldwide, according to the company.
“We are going to get more boats out of the factory this year than we have ever got out … and the good thing is the Australian and U.S. markets continue to look like strong markets for us despite the gloom and the doom,” Glen told Stuff. “We aren’t seeing any slowdown in those respective markets.”