Innovations related to the composites that are used in fiberglass hulls and decks that Bombardier uses for its Sea-Doo personal watercraft are being developed in a Bombardier Recreational Products plant that opened in the South Central City of Queretaro in November of 2012.

The composites manufacturing in Mexico of parts for the company’s personal watercraft will take place in an 85,000 square foot building, while the rest of the Sea-Doo Spark 2014 model will be produced in a separate 500,000 square foot structure. By the following year, BRP will migrate the production of all Sea Doo products to Queretaro from its present Valcourt, Quebec manufacturing site. Presently BRP’s Queretaro Sea Doo production facility employs six hundred and forty people. This number is expected to increase to eleven hundred during the next calendar year.

Bombardier Recreational Products is making a sizable long term investment in composites manufacturing in Mexico at its Queretaro facility. BRP officials quoted an investment figure of $95.8 million dollars for plant and equipment. This amount is in addition to the large investment that the Canadian firm has already made in its aerospace production facilities in the same city. The Bombardier aerospace division manufactures aircraft components for Learjet 85, Challenger 605, CRJ700/CRJ900/CRJ1000 NextGen, Q400 NextGen and Global 6000/7000.

According to the president and CEO of Bombardier Recreational Products, Jose Boisjoli, “Mexico is a competitive global product delivery hub.” The CEO pointed to the capable Mexican workforce as a source of the competitive advantage that BRP has found in the country, as well to the benefits that accrue to his company resulting from Mexico’s “outward looking trade strategy, and diversified free trade agreements.”

In additon to composites manufacturing in Mexico at the Queretaro plant, the company also began producing its Rotax motors in the city in 2012. Besides its activities in Queretaro, BRP maintains production of its Can-Am all-terrain and side-by-side vehicles in a Ciudad Juarez production facility located on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read the primary source for this post at Plastics News.