Page 37: of Marine News Magazine (January 2, 2010)

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www.marinelink.com MN 37

SeaArk Marine is a 50-year-old boat building company located in

Monticello in Drew County, Ark.

The company has provided maritime products for cities, states and foreign countries, as well as the U.S. Navy,

Coast Guard, Marines, Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agen- cies. The 200,000 sq ft facility is located on five acres in the hub of manufacturing, retail and education for southeast Ark. The company is one of the five largest employers in

Drew County with 185 full-time employees and a payroll of over $6m annually. The product line of SeaArk

Marine includes approximately 200 different hull styles and sizes of boats ranging in length from 17 ft up to 85 ft. Each boat is custombuilt based upon specifications of the customer for applications that range from theme park entertainment to combat and law enforcement purposes to cargo transport to pollution control.

SeaArk Marine currently manufac- tures around 90 custom boats per year. SeaArk said the flexibility to provide a custom product is one of the keys to its competitiveness.

SeaArk Marine boats are rarely the cheapest when it comes to price, yet 95% of the company's business each year is from return buyers.

SeaArk Marine conducts business with 168 companies in Monticello alone and seeks to cultivate its suppli- ers within the state and region. The company chooses to remain in its cur- rent land-locked facility despite recent record growth and said that the location is not a deterrent to soliciting customers from around the globe.

Employees of SeaArk Marine are recruited locally first and continuous- ly trained in all phases of boat build- ing, both in-house and outsourced through University of Arkansas

Monticello College of Technology at

McGehee, Crossett, and Monticello

Workforce Training Center.

SeaArk Marine

Photo courtesy SeaArk Marine, Inc.