Styrotech rebuilds after crisis

Kevin Trotter (left) and Russell Davis with the drill for making boat components.

When the America's Cup set sail from Auckland's shores two years ago, so did the best part of Kevin Trotter's customer base.

Styrotech, his niche design and manufacturing company, was thriving amidst Cup season, making highly customised racing boat components for most of the syndicates.

But when Alinghi seized the Cup from Team New Zealand, taking the regatta to Europe, the company lost 30 per cent of its work.

"Like many small marine businesses, we lost our customer base almost overnight," said Trotter. "We were aware it could happen, but we hadn't planned for it. We were too busy and didn't look ahead."

After struggling on for a year, Trotter came close to shutting the doors, but strategic thinking revived the company's fortunes and extended its specialty manufacturing techniques to a range of new markets.

These days the objects that emerge from the Silverdale factory range from polystyrene moulds for superyacht booms to bathtubs, retail signage and teapots.

Styrotech specialises in three-dimensional shaping of soft products such as woods, polystyrene, MDF, carbon and plastics.

3D designs are drawn up on computer, then a 6m-long computer numeric-controlled (CNC) machine with a five-axis drill cuts, routs and shapes the material to any form.

Most of Styrotech's work is still in the marine industry, but its customer base is now much more diverse, including architects, builders, product designers, the composites industry, signwriters, sculptors and manufacturers.

The shapes either stand alone or are used as "plugs" to create plastic or fibreglass moulds for products such as boat hulls or masts, car bodies or bicycle frames.

The machine can also be used for furniture and cabinet making, 3D engraving, or to create intricate patterns for metal castings, and vacuum-forming moulds for signage and displays.

Trotter bought the $500,000 Italian machine while building his custom- made Styrotech windsurf boards 10 years ago.

He was one of the first in the industry to use computer-assisted design, which he thought would improve speed and accuracy.

"I knew I couldn't make the boards any better by hand, and a machine was the only way to improve accuracy."

Trotter soon found that the machine, capable of carving highly complex shapes from virtually any material except metal, was ideally suited to producing keels, rudders and sections of rigging for boats.

Top-five national skiff sailor and CNC engineer Russell Davis, now the company's general manager, helped to rebuild the company after the Cup disaster, spotting an opportunity to apply its niche manufacturing skills to new industries.

Staff were stripped to three from a peak of 11 as the pair set about rebuilding their customer base.

Cashflow is now returning to where it was during the America's Cup, with turnover of $500,000 expected this year.

Trotter, whose career started sweeping the factory floors for New Zealand yacht designer Bruce Farr, is no longer fulltime in the business, but is the major shareholder, and he oversees accounts and design.

He believes the company will work more closely with architects in the future. It is working on a frame for a curved-wall house being built on the North Shore.

The company is looking to invest in another cutting machine to keep it ahead of the market.

Windsurfers may ask, will Styrotech ever return to manufacturing boards? They were phased out two years ago as kite surfing reduced demand, but are still popular on the secondhand market.

"If the market is there, we will definitely consider making our designs and computer-cut templates available again," said Trotter.