Difficulty and expense of exporting to the US in a post-Covid world cited for move to USA by Stabicraft.
Stabicraft has completed transition of a 1500sqm leased facility in the US state of Washington to begin building boats to meet North American demand. The company’s operation in Invercargill, New Zealand, will continue to produce the popular brand of aluminium boats as it focuses on manufacturing and growth in the US.
“We see considerable growth opportunity in the USA. 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 labour,” CEO David Glen told stuffnz.com.
“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 US markets continue to look like strong markets for us despite the gloom and the doom. We aren’t seeing any slowdown in those respective markets.”
Glen cited difficulty and expense of exporting to the US in a post-Covid world as part of the decision process in opening a US operation.
Glen said the US facility at Port Angeles, Washington was selected based on the availability of local workforce and business climate.
