Windy Boats moves production away from Norway

Norwegian boat builder Windy Boats is the latest company to claim that costs in Norway have become too large at the same time as luxury yachts and other leisure and recreational boats are becoming harder to sell. This has already resulted in bankruptcies in Nordic countries, as evidence by the failures of both Nimbus and Scand Boats only this month. Windy Boats will be moving production to Poland, where it says the costs are three times less and Sweden. Even the employee representative understood the move, telling Agderposten, that at current sales numbers, the owner has been losing millions, and that the remaining options were to either outsource the production or to also go under.

Windy Boats is a subsidiary of a holding company called Periscopus AS. It has been producing boats of 25 to 58 feet (around 7.5-17.5 metres) under WINDY and WINDY Oceancraft brands in Skarpnes near Arendal Aust-Agder, Norway. Altogether it employes some 160 people over there, around 50 of which will be affected by the move.Other activities such as R&D, design, marketing and sales personnel will still be placed in Skarpnes. More details will be forthcoming after Summer vacations.