SEQUIM — First, lavender.
Now, snowboards.
Carlsborg will become the snowboard manufacturing capital of the United States by October 2006 as Mervin Manufacturing consolidates its manufacturing operations at its North Olympic Peninsula location.
About 10 office jobs and 20 factory positions will be moved from its Seattle facility to Carlsborg, where Mervin currently employs more than 30 people.
The company makes snowboards and skateboards, and is looking into starting a line of surfboards.
The company produces about 60,000 boards a year.
There was a time about 10 years ago when Mervin Manufacturing, along with snowboarding industry peers, was flying high.
Co-founders Mike Olson and Pete Saari had 150 employees working triple shifts in their factories in Carlsborg and Seattle, and they still couldn’t make enough boards to meet demand.
“It was the heyday of snowboarding,” Olson said.
“It was a different time.”
It was a time when the company could rent out a French restaurant for a Christmas party and serve escargot whether employees wanted it or not.
Sales have flattened out
Not anymore.
Industry sales have been flat for years, and just about every competitor Mervin has is outsourcing production because of cheaper labor abroad.
Olson and Saari have vowed not to do that, but keeping that promise requires some changes in the company.
Specifically, moving all production to Carlsborg over the next year.
“Now, the margins are tight. The competition is tight,” Olson said.
“Our goal is to keep her going here as long as we can — the goal is forever.”
Silver-medal board
Mervin Manufacturing built the custom snowboard that Danny Kass rode to a silver medal victory at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Kass was one of three Americans who swept the men’s halfpipe competition at the Games.
Since 1995, Mervin has produced Gnu and Lib Technologies snowboards from its plant in the Carlsborg Industrial Park.
It’s not clear at this point how many employees will move from the Seattle area to the Olympic Peninsula.
