Curious if FWs financial woes would effect Sunovas licensing relationship with FW.
Article in Transworld Business dated 12/6/2007:
Parabolic Rail Pioneer Bert Burger Launches New Surfboard Brand
http://business.transworld.net/2007/12/06/parabolic-rail-pioneer-bert-burger-launches-new-surfboard-brand/
Bert Burger—the originator of the parabolic, balsa-rail design that became Firewire Surfboards—put the finishing touches on a new factory in Bangkok, Thailand in late November.
Since splitting with Firewire in March 2007, Burger has relaunched Sunova Surfboards, the label he began as Sunova Beach in 1989 in Rockingham, Western Australia. Sunova is producing wooden-railed, epoxy-sandwiched shortboards, Firewire’s boards are based on similar designs, and teamrider Taj Burrow won two World Championship Tour events on them in 2007.
“Pushing for quality systems and materials at Firewire exasperated my partners to the point where they felt I was being disruptive to the well-being of the business,” Burger explains. “In the end, starting Sunova again was a forced decision. But if I wanted to make money, then I wouldn’t make surfboards.”
Firewire’s Nev Hyman recruited Burger from Western Australia three years ago to start Firewire. Since Burger departed, Chuy Reyna, Firewire’s marketing manager, says Firewire now licenses its technologies to Burger, and they signed a non-competition agreement. In part because of Sunova’s smaller size, Reyna says Burger’s new business is consistent with the agreement. “We’re trying to support him as much as we possibly can, and we wish him the best,” Reyna says.
Sunova opened a R&D facility in Currumbin, Australia in May 2007, and opened a seventeen-employee surfboard factory in Bangkok in late November. Burger built the Thai plant from the ground up, and plans to make 100 boards in December. A typical shortboard will retail in the United States from 750 to 850 dollars, depending on features.
Sunova has plans to grow at a deliberate pace, and in three years it’s shooting to make up to 20,000 boards annually. Distribution is focused on Australia and the U.S., and distributors have expressed interest in Western Europe, Norway, Indonesia, and New Zealand, among other places.
Director Josh Dowling says Sunova decided to build the factory in Thailand because of the high cost of starting a business in Australia. A shaper and artist from Torquay, Australia, Dowling also says that because of the nearby Cobra factory—which makes all of Surftech and Global Surf Industries boards and employs several thousand board builders—Sunova hasn’t had trouble finding employees with surfboard experience. “They’re a bunch of bright guys, at times easier to train than a similar bunch of Aussies, despite the language difference,” Dowling says.
According to Burger, the fruits of being in business for himself outweigh the challenges of living and working in Thailand. “Being in control of your own future and direction is so much more rewarding, even if you don’t make money,” he says. “Never sell your soul—I didn’t and I won’t, but I came close enough to know I need it for myself.”