Blue Wave Boats and Silver Wave Boats operate in a 42-acre, 165,000-sq-foot facility located in Seminole, Okla. The companies make fiberglass boats and pontoon boats in the same facility. Currently, it takes about 10-12 days to make a boat from scratch. The company is looking for opportunities to expand and integrate their supply chain to make the process even faster.
They employ more than 100 people in the Seminole community including gel coaters, laminators, skilled craftsman and are looking to grow to about 150 over the coming years.
“Each boat is handcrafted with some of the world’s finest material to be a world-class product,” says Richard Parks, co-owner of Blue Wave and Silver Wave Boats, “which will provide years of wonderful boating experiences for our customers.”
“We are happy to be somewhere that people want you to be,” says Jim Shorin, managing member of Horizon Holdings, LLC, which recently partnered with the company. “We are excited about the quality jobs program and [the Oklahoma Department of] Commerce’s interest in helping us.”
After Commerce made a visit to the company’s facility, Phil Estes, managing member of Horizon Holdings, LLC, and Parks invited the Commerce team to join the companies at International Boatbuilders Exhibition and Conference (IBEX) held in Tampa, Fl.
“We are eager to expand our supply chain partnerships in Oklahoma because Parks Manufacturing (the parent company of Blue Wave Boats and Silver Wave Boats) is a proud 25-year-old Oklahoma based company and because operating in the state of Oklahoma has so many advantages … great employees, low costs, high quality of life, and excellent infrastructure among many others … relative to some other choices. As such, we are looking across our supply chain for progressive, growth oriented suppliers who want to co-locate with us in Oklahoma and to help us build our businesses together,” says Estes. “Working with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to expand and strengthen our supply chain will help our dealers and our company deliver better products to our consumers.”
Charles Kimbrough, director of business development for Commerce, attended IBEX on behalf of Commerce.
“We were honored to be introduced to people and companies in their supply chain. It’s a great experience to help rural Oklahoma companies grow and expand. That is what Commerce is all about,” said Kimbrough. “So to come out to a show like this, walk the floor with one of our vendors and talk to other companies about our state is an endorsement that we hope will lead to more quality jobs for people throughout our state. “
