With boat sales up, Seakeeper charts course for Berks expansion

(Originally published March 19, 2021 for the Reading Eagle) — After expanding its Mohnton facility only a year ago, Seakeeper has come to a realization: they’re gonna need a bigger boat.

The manufacturer of a popular line of gyroscopic stabilizers for boats is struggling to keep up with demand as personal watercraft sales have soared during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, Seakeeper is looking to grow once again to meet the increase in volume.

“We keep adjusting the schedule up,” said Bob Moser, vice president of manufacturing and engineering for Seakeeper. “Capacity is something we’ve gotten better at by driving hours out and being more efficient.

“But the number of units we have to build this year has doubled — and last year was a record fourth quarter.”

In the immediate, Seakeeper seeks to hire for between 60 and 100 positions in its Mohnton facility right away.

Seakeeper has also embarked on a search for a new home in Berks County, as the company will need a larger operation to match the rapid rise in customer enthusiasm for its products.

“We reached our straining point on this campus a year-and-a-half, two years quicker than we thought we would,” Moser said.

“And we can’t really stop. We can’t say, ‘OK, let’s find a place and move to it,’ and just pick everything up. We have to keep making units.”

‘This product is so unique’

Since its founding in 2002, Seakeeper has emerged as a global leader in marine stabilization technology, its innovative line capable of eliminating up to 95% of boat roll — the rocking motion that causes seasickness, fatigue and anxiety.

In 2011, Seakeeper purchased Joma Machine Company in Mohnton and began manufacturing at the old textile mills along Wyomissing Avenue, then announced it was moving its corporate headquarters to the location in February 2020.

At the time, there was no way of knowing exactly how fast business would grow.

“There really hasn’t been a manufacturer of gyroscopes before this, so everything is new,” Moser said. “Gyroscopes have been around, but this product is so unique.

“I remember when we first started doing this, when we brought up a Seakeeper gyroscope, people didn’t really know exactly what you’re talking about. Now it’s, ‘I want a Seakeeper,’ or, ‘I have a Seakeeper.'”

Seakeeper was hitting its revenue projections, but the recent spike in boat sales — created in part by people searching for ways to have fun while social distancing — sent the market into overdrive.

“Seakeeper plays its part in attracting new boat owners because it makes your experience so much more comfortable,” said Kelsey Barrett, marketing manager for Seakeeper. “So as Seakeeper has grown in popularity, you’re also getting this influx of new boaters.”

Even as signs point to the threat of COVID-19 dissipating this summer, boat sales are anticipated to remain strong in 2021 and beyond.

“We’ve had to reforecast three times this year,” said Barrett.

With growth, growing pains

While rising demand is a good problem to have, it exposed Seakeeper’s need to bring on more staff.

The 60-to-100 positions the company wants to hire for — mechanical assemblers, Seakeeper calls them — it needed last week, or last month.

These are good jobs, Moser stresses, with competitive pay in a clean environment. And while Seakeeper has roles for skilled workers such as experienced machinists, there’s on-the-job training available for some openings as well.

“You don’t go to school to build a gyroscope,” Moser said. “You might be an HVAC person, or a plumber.

“All of that makes the environment one where, first of all, it is learnable. It’s not too difficult. At the same time, we can bring people in who might have some mechanical aptitude and quickly train them.”

Seakeeper employs 100 people already at its Mohnton location. In five years, the company plans to have 250 people working in Berks.

Even at that size, it will remain a tight-knit operation compared to some.

“We’re still a relatively small company,” Barrett said. “Our engineers, our CEO, they’re all working out of the Mohnton facility.

“Andrew Semprevivo, the CEO, when you’re walking around the factory with him, he knows everybody’s name that’s there, so there’s this family feel of being together.”

Seakeeper is in Berks to stay

It’s unusual for a boating company to place its headquarters in a landlocked place, rather than near an ocean — a curiosity not overlooked by Seakeeper.

“I’ve taken boat builders or customers and vendors on walkthroughs, and halfway through it’s, ‘This is really cool, but why are you here,'” Moser said. “‘why are you not on the coast?'”

Seakeeper’s ties to the area were born out of its working relationship with Joma, which was owned by Moser, a Berks native.

Now, as the company plans to move operations yet again, this time to a permanent location where it can really flex its muscle, the company maintains it is “100% committed” to staying in the county.

“That workforce, that infrastructure we invested in is so valuable,” Moser said. “We have 100 people with specific skill sets, who trained with us, invested with us. The county is a great place to live, a good place to work, good communities. There’s a lot of manufacturing-capable people here.

“I don’t think we can imagine being anywhere else anymore. It’s just who we are.”

It could take anywhere from six months to two years until Seakeeper has a new home and is fully operational there.

“Wherever we do end up, it will be in Berks County and it will be a decision made to keep our workforce,” Barrett said.

Long-term, Seakeeper only sees its footprint continuing to expand, both in Berks and throughout the boating industry.

“We’re going after what was the founder’s original vision: to get gyroscopes on every boat,” Moser said.

“My sense is we will rival any Berks County-headquartered company in terms of revenue and people very quickly.”