Making waves

Proof that Chris-Craft Corp. is on a return trip to the glory days goes deeper than an expansion in sales or payroll.

It's not that the Manatee County-based boat builder doesn't have those elements. Annual revenues, for example, are up 33% to a projected $40 million in 2013 after a dip to around $30 million in 2011 and 2012. The employee count, which shrank to 25 at the depths of the downturn, is up to around 200 today. Those figures, albeit an improvement, still lag the company's 2008 heyday, when it had nearly 500 employees, facilities in Florida and North Carolina and about $65 million in sales.

The growth trend nonetheless points upward, and the preeminent piece of comeback evidence is this: Chris-Craft now has two full-time engineers with positions devoted totally to finding and evaluating the best of the best in materials and parts. That ranges from Myanmar-imported teak to DuPont ChromaBase paint to bird's eye maple.