Boat company is afloat again
HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. – After closing in September 2005, a revitalized PowerQuest Boats is back in business and expects to ship its first boats later this month, The Grand Rapids Press reported in a story yesterday.
Boatbuilder Coastal Performance Marine LLC purchased the business in January and set about relaunching it, the paper reported.
Coastal Performance President Phil Hall had gone to the PowerQuest site to buy tools and materials for his Muskegon, Mich., operation and wound up buying PowerQuest’s assets from an investment group.
“There were these boats in the middle of production just sitting there from the day the plant closed, and I thought what a loss it would be to let this quality boat just disappear,” Hall told the newspaper.
“The boats have a great reputation, and I decided that if I could create efficiencies and lower production costs through repeatability and new high-tech processes, I could make it work,” Hall told the Press, declining to say how much he invested.
After test runs this spring, building the new generation of PowerQuest boats started last month in the 55,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.
Hall is staying with the base PowerQuest models that were successful, the newspaper reported. On tap for the first production will be a 38-foot Avenger starting at $250,000. He also has his sights set on producing new models, including a 40-foot 400 SC Sport Cruiser that will sell in the $500,000 range.
PowerQuest already has lined up 16 U.S. dealers and three international dealers, all of which previously sold that line, Hall told the Press.
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