GILLETT, Wis. — Alan Kaiser has had his hands on a lot of MirroCraft boats over the years.
He works in the assembly area at Northport Marine in Gillett.
“We get them and it’s just a bare hull of the boat. We’ll put in our carpet on the sides, vinyl, our wiring along the sides,” he said. “The bow module, the stern module. Our console will go in. We basically assemble all the stuff inside. From there, it goes over to the paint line.”
Kaiser not only builds the boats, but he also keeps an eye out for them around the state.
“To see the boat on a trailer going by your house or going down the high, or on the water somewhere, it’s neat to say, ‘I might have built that boat,’” he said.
Northport Marine builds MirroCraft boats and Montego Bay pontoons at its production facility in Oconto County.
With growing sales, it is seeking 10 to 15 people for open careers. Careers range from welders and paint prep technicians to material handlers and general laborers.
Tracy Winkler handles Human Resources at Northport. She said entry-level positions are the highest need. Those are positions they will train.
“We’ll teach you the skills to build the boat and the pontoons,” Winkler said. “We just need able, willing and a good attitude.”
She said there’s a pride that goes with being tied to a small town like Gillett.
“They think that we have multiple factories. We have one. Gillett, Wisconsin,” Winkler said. “That’s it.”
Tuff Giese landed a job at Northport though a youth apprenticeship program that saw him working at the company while attending high school.
He graduated in late May and is now working full time with the CNC plasma cutter and other machines.
“I make the parts. I cut them out,” Giese said. “They look like a flat piece of aluminum at first and after that it turns into a whole boat. It’s pretty cool.”
For Kaiser there’s something special about building boats close to his home in Oconto Falls.
“The fact that the MirroCraft boats come from Wisconsin — the only place they were ever made is in Gillett, Wisconsin — that makes it neat in itself,” he said.
More information on careers at Northport Marine can be found here.