Lewmar goes global
by Media Services on 16 Oct 2007
Carl Craaford (second left) and the Lewmar Australiasia team Lewmar .
http://www.lewmar.com
The UK based Lewmar business is set for a period of rapid global expansion. On the 1st of July of this year Lewmar joined forces with their sister company Navtec in the USA and the resulting company was recently renamed Lewmar Marine.
It will continue to sell both the Lewmar and Navtec brands through a distribution network that is expected to quickly grow. We spoke to Carl Crafoord, Managing Director of Lewmar Marine in the Asia/Pacific region, about his plans for the company.
‘The company has been a UK based business for 60 years and we’ve had a USA subsidiary for the last 30 years. We are now in the process of turning the business into a global business by setting up in the JAPA region: Japan, Asia, Pacific, Australia.’
‘We have set up a warehouse and service centre in Sydney Australia and now we’re setting up a facility in the Gold Coast on Waterway Drive Coomera, to serve the SE Queensland power and sail marine sector. We have also currently installed a bonded warehouse in Kaohsiung Taiwan and we are in the process of setting up a warehouse facility in Hong Kong to serve southern China.’
Lewmar is well known as a supplier of quality winches, steering and anchoring systems, hatches, hardware and bow thrusters. Crafoord said that he expects Lewmar’s proximity to the large power and sail boat builders will result in more Lewmar products being incorporated into the Australasian built recreational market.
Lewmar currently supplies products to Australian builders including Sydney Yachts, Azzura Marine Group, Riviera, Maritimo, Sunrunner, Tasman, Chincogan, Deep Vee, Fairway Marine, Haines Hunter and Whittley to mention a few.
Crafoord is enthusiastic about Lewmar’s plans for expansion in the wider Asia/Pacific region. Part of the company’s strategy to transform itself into an international player has been to divide the world into three markets: Europe/UK, the Americas/USA and Asia/Pacific/JAPA. Each market is managed by a different team sharing resources and they are in the process of building up local infrastructure, particularly in the relatively new Asian markets.
‘Basically if you divide the world in longitude: there’s 24 hours in a day and there’s three eight hour sections, so the sun is always up in one of those areas. This structure means that we’re always supporting and communicating with the distributors in our region thus delivering inventory and technical support to our many and various end users in real time.
The advantage for existing Lewmar customers of having a strong team in their region is that Lewmar products and spares can be stockpiled locally, rather than sent in from Europe or America. This means that products will become immediately available and it will also allow Lewmar distributors to spend more time with their local customers and provide service rather than concern themselves with managing inventory, international freight and logistics.
‘We’re setting up these new facilities to better serve our customers, both trade and public, in this third of the world’ explained Crafoord.
‘We currently have twelve distributors that we deal with daily … so we’re slowly getting our map sorted out and getting our distribution right.’
Throughout Asia, Lewmar Australasia Pty Ltd has been on something of a hiring blitz with new distributors in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Despite his enthusiasm for Lewmar Marine’s expansion in Asia, Crafoord is realistic about the difficulties that boat builders face when they set up production in the region. Manufacturers moving to Asia to take advantage of cheaper labour costs sometimes find it difficult to find local workers with high levels of technical expertise.
‘And you still have all the logistics problems of getting all the parts there and getting the thing back out when it’s finished.’
He regards the Taiwanese boat yards as something of a template for best practice in Asia, where US and European dealers place orders with the yards and then the yards build the boats as a sub contractor. Historically builders have partnered with various brands based in the USA. He indicated that Lewmar’s new distributor in Taiwan would be of significant benefit to local boat builders using Lewmar and Navtec products.
Lewmar Navtec Australasia is also involved with the high end race boat market.
In the last America’s Cup campaign Navtec provided hydraulic systems, rod rigging and PBO fiber rigging to Emirates NZ and Luna Rossa. This high level involvement with elite racing has helped raise the company’s international profile.
'Navtec is renowned for rod rigging and rigging of masts but we also have a complete and very well structured hydraulic company in Guildford, Connecticut. It’s been doing America’s Cup hydraulics and rigging for the last 30 years. In fact in Valencia this year there were some Navtec products on every boat in the America’s Cup.’
Although Lewmar and Navtec has been under common ownership for two decades their product R & D had remained separate, though the creation of the new Lewmar Marine Company is expected to change this.
'Currently we are setting up a Navtec hydraulic workshop and inventory in Sydney to assist our distributors and customers in this part of the world. There are many components that we manufacture that are hydraulically operated, winches, windlasses, thrusters, DC power packs and Navtec hydraulic rams all of these parts can be on one vessel and now locally we can support this effort with technical sales and after sales service.’
Peter O’Connell, Lewmar Marine’s CEO said that Lewmar and Navtec products of the future would benefit from the joining of the two companies.
‘It will be natural to see an alignment of R&D efforts… There will certainly be more cross pollination.’
Crafoord added that the joining of Navtec and Lewmar could only benefit the current Asia/Pacific expansion. He sees advantages in the expansion of the company’s product range, reduction of administrative costs and increased economies of scale in manufacturing and distribution.
‘By integrating the two we have the best of both worlds where the two can work together in tandem delivering the latest technology to our customer base at the best value.’
Contact details;
Lewmar Navtec Australasia Pty Ltd.
Address : Unit 4, 224 Headland Rd
City : Dee Why
State : NSW
Postcode : 2099
Country : Australia
Phone : +61 02 9936 7111
Fax : +61 02 9936 7112
http://www.lewmar.com
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