Zodiac To Remain In South Carolina

Inflatable boat and RIB manufacturer Zodiac Nautic North America has re-signed a five-year property lease agreement that will see the company’s North American headquarters remain in Summerville, South Carolina.

“This area has provided an ideal location not only logistically but also for talent resources,” said Zodiac Nautic North America president, Gary Durnan. “We want to continue our plans for growth and expansion, and our current facility and lease afford us those opportunities.”

Current plans for developing the Summerville facility include moving some fiberglass production into the plant by mid-2017.

“Our facility has mainly been an area of receiving product from our parent company, where it’s assembled to specifically tailor to our American market,” explained Durnan. “But with our new ownership and direction, we can now look to bring fiberglass production in-house to Summerville over the next 16 to 18 months, as well as restructure our production lines to create better efficiencies. Bottom line, we have increasing demand, and we want to maintain the proper resources and processes to meet our customer demand more autonomously.”

Durnan noted that Zodiac’s European production is already back to 100 percent of where it was before former owner Z Marine – which also owned the Avon and Bombard RIB brands – was declared insolvent in April 2015. Z Marine North America, operating as a healthy and financially independent business, was not involved in the receivership of its French parent however, and continues to command a substantial share of the North American inflatable/RIB market.