What do you do when your main industry is hit hard by the recession, customers aren't buying and you're faced with layoffs? If you're Joe Foggia, president of Christiansen Shipyard, you think hard, work hard and find a new way to put your old assets to work.
"It was a ghost town," said Foggia, speaking of the boat show in the far-flung Mediterrean getaway of Monaco last September. "I knew right away there was going to be a major impact on our business." Christiansen Shipyard manufactures luxury yachts, some up to 165 feet long.
Since last fall, Foggia has laid off nearly 250 employees – a necessary but hard decision. It was partly the fate of those employees that drove Foggia to spend the last ten months launching a new company, Renewable Energy Composite Solutions, LLC (RECS), using existing yacht manufacturing equipment and composite materials to manufacture renewable energy products such as wind turbine blades and buoys that use ocean wave motion to generate electricity.
"We're not specific to wind," Foggia said. "We're open to any type of [renewable energy] manufacturing that features units in remote locations, exposed to harsh weather and corrosive elements."
Foggia hopes to bring his first product – a vertical, helix-shaped wind turbine blade – to market in October of this year. If that seems fast-track, you're right.
"Joe is extremely determined, smart, and impressive," said Jeanie Ashe, director of business recruitment at the Columbia Economic Development Council (CREDC).
Ashe has worked with Foggia on several fronts, including introducing him to the Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council, which potentially will help with the rehiring and retraining of former Christiansen employees to work at RECS. Foggia said he hoped RECS would employ up to 150 people by the end of 2010.
"He is passionate about rehiring his employees," Ashe said.
Christiansen Shipyard's existing assets, such as vacuum injection molding equipment, easy access to the railroad and the Port of Vancouver and a vertically integrated staff handling everything from engineering and design to electrical to painting the finished product, has helped RECS quickly find business partners and venture capital.
"RECS has a compelling argument, an awesome location, and a good team – all what you need to find partners," said Scott Lindsay, president of SML Consulting. Lindsay's Vancouver-based firm provides lobbying, marketing and startup financial support to companies entering the renewable energy industry.
Lindsay called the renewable energy market "very strong," and said RECS is so far the only renewable energy manufacturer in the entire Pacific Northwest. Especially in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, which damage easily during shipment, RECS' ability to shorten the supply chain by manufacturing the blades close to where they'll be used is a significant advantage.
RECS is working with several Northwest entrepreneurs and researchers to bring new renewable energy technology to market, such as the vertical wind turbine blade.
"They are unique in their ability to develop technology by manufacturing and fabricating," Lindsay said, "and they can be responsive on a large scale."
Foggia stated it was hard to predict revenue exactly; however, he anticipates $40 million in gross revenue in 2010.
Ashe said that the CREDC may help RECS write a grant proposal for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for new equipment acquisition, and that plans also included creating a local renewable energy consortium that could market RECS and the community to other renewable energy manufacturers.
Consortium members would include university personnel, officials at the Port of Vancouver, iron workers and more – anyone who would benefit from renewable energy manufacturing, according to Ashe.
"We want to be able to present a ‘package deal' to other renewable energy manufacturers – the workforce, the transportation infrastructure and the available land," Ashe said.
Foggia remains excited about the future of RECS and the renewable energy market. "Diversification is something that everyone enjoys – it's a breath of fresh air."
