Bob Clark, owner of MetalCraft Marine in Kingston, stands on a high speed fire boat worth $4.4 million US that the company is currently working on. The boat, which is being made for the Jacksonville fire department in Florida pumps 13,500 gallons of water per minute. Mr. Clark has been working as contract manager of MetalCraft Marine since 1991.Ben Nelms
In the summer of 2007, U.S. business journalists began reporting on the subprime mortgage crisis and a growing crisis in the financial sector. Bob Clark, contracts manager for Kingston, Ont.-based MetalCraft Marine, set out to learn more about the potential trouble ahead.
At the time, 95 per cent of the company's revenue came from selling high-speed patrol and search-and-rescue craft to U.S. regional and federal governments: MetalCraft's continued prosperity depended on a strong U.S. economy.
"I realized it could have a domino effect … and we immediately started looking for business outside the U.S.," Mr. Clark recalled.
MetalCraft began to focus its marketing efforts on Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America, and after years of steady but slow growth, revenue suddenly took off.
Business strategy expert Douglas Reid said few Canadian companies "had the guts" to make the same decision when signs of the economic crisis first began to surface.
"It reflects exactly the kind of thinking that I would hope more businesses would do, which is foresight and a willingness to not go with the herd," said Prof. Reid, a business professor at Queen's University in Kingston.
MetalCraft's Bob Clark joined us for an online discussion on his company, its strategies, and tapping overseas markets. View an archive in the box below.