Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats has added a 50,000-square-foot building to its original location in Cape Coral, Fla., to meet increased production demands.
“We’re going to be the biggest manufacturing employer in Cape Coral,” company co-founder Trond Schou told Trade Only Today. “We’ve doubled the capacity of our fiberglass shop and we have four times the size rigging shop.”
The company hopes to move into the new facility by Christmas and add at least 50 employees. Schou said that the new building includes a dedicated 3,600-square-foot upholstery area and a second paint booth, which is critical to keeping up with demand. The company’s former rigging shop at another location in North Fort Myers will now be used exclusively for fiberglass and lamination.
Schou said that the expansion cost about $2 million. He hopes to increase production by 30 percent, with the goal of building two of its 34-foot and 39-foot center console models per day. The company recently celebrated the 200 edition of its 39-foot center console at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.
In addition to center-consoles, the company is also building one of its 477 performance V-bottoms powered by twin Mercury Racing 1550s. Nor-Tech also builds its Monte Carlo and Flyer series models on its 34-foot and 39-foot bottoms. Schou said the company has “a bunch of Monte Carlos on order.” Like the center-consoles, these are outboard-powered models. The company is not building high-performance catamarans due to high product liability insurance costs.
