Smoker Craft Inc. Doubles Size of Pontoon Plant

New Paris, Indiana-based Smoker Craft Inc. has experienced such strong growth in sales of its pontoon boats that the company just completed a substantial renovation that will effectively double the size of its pontoon manufacturing facility.

The new $2.5 million addition covers more than 95,000 square feet, says Smoker Craft Inc. President, Doug Smoker. Built alongside the company’s existing pontoon plant, the new addition gives the company more than 180,000 square feet of manufacturing space for its Starcraft, Sylvan and SunChaser pontoon boats.

With pontoons now representing about 40% of the company’s total production, the additional floor space will allow Smoker Craft to increase its pontoon production from about 125 boats per week to 180 boats each week. The company, which presently employs more than 525 people, expects to hire additional staff to meet production requirements as the new production space comes online.

Apart from boosting manufacturing capacity, the new addition will also allow the company to improve its operational efficiency.

“Upholstery is one example,” says Smoker. “We make our own upholstery for pontoons, but the upholstery shop is located two buildings away. Moving that upholstery to the assembly area requires a forklift to drive it across the property, which adds adds steps to the process and can be challenging in winter after we’ve had a major snowfall. So relocating that aspect of production into the same building just makes sense. The primary goal with this expansion is to be more efficient, to improve the way vendors in our supply chain deliver their products to us, and ultimately build a better product.”