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Asian success for German yacht builder
MALACCA, Malaysia (CNN) -- A German dome-building company has cornered the yacht business in the Malaysian town of Malacca. German Hannes Waimar initially set up a dome-building factory in Malacca when he won two big contracts in Malaysia in 1997. He had begun his yacht-building career in Germany, but while his dome business grew in Malaysia, the yacht factory in Germany closed. In Malaysia the company, DK, began making lightweight domes for mosques and government buildings, including the Malaysian Prime Minister's Residence and Office. With the closure of the German yacht factory, Waimar decided the new dome factory in Malaysia should start making yachts too. "The problem is our dome system is only good for the big dome projects. We were afraid worldwide there would not be enough big dome projects. "It is also very difficult to line up projects one after another. You either have overlaps or gaps in between." To keep his staff employed between dome projects, Waimar succeeded in using the same technology for two totally different products. The yacht company now has 180 employees and an 8,000-sq-metre factory in Malacca, a town founded in the fourteenth century and once an important port on the Asian spice route. "Because we build in a medium to low-cost labour country, I actually think we build a better product here than in Germany. "In Germany the labour costs are high, so you really had to control the amount of hours they spend on a project," Waimar said. "Here you allow them to spend half an hour, one hour more to do a nicer job." Workers who had no previous experience as boat builders had to be trained by the experienced German staff. But now the quality of their work has led to orders for many of the hi-tech composite racers on the Asian Yachting circuit. DK's location is convenient for the owners, who once would have had to travel to Europe or the U.S. for a world-class yacht-builder. "It is extremely easy to go back, haul the boat out of the water and ship it back to the factory if we need to, which is something that wasn't around in Asia before this," said Singapore-based investment banker Keith Moore, who skippers a DK boat in his spare time. DK Yachts' success depends on the use of an advanced machine which creates moulds from high-density foam with precision -- an expensive machine that most yacht builders cannot afford. As well as clients in Asia, DK has attracted orders from the U.S., Australia and Europe, because it beats prices in those regions by 10 to 15 percent, partly due to tax breaks from the Malaysian government. "Malaysia is very supportive to companies who do joint ventures here, who bring technology into the country, who produce here in Malaysia and export overseas," Waimar said. With an annual turnover of $12 million and two years' work on its order books, there are plans to expand the workforce by 50 percent.
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