Ontario canoe manufacturers are taking a financial pounding due to a surge in kayak sales, but are refusing to let their industry sink.

The popularity of kayaks in recent years has pushed the canoe from its first-place position in the manually powered recreational watercraft market.

"Kayak sales in the past three to four years grew at the expense of canoe sales," says Keith Robinson, president of 20-year-old Souris River Canoes in Atikokan, about 200 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

Canadians' cultural ties to the canoe have helped local canoe makers avoid being swamped by the cheaper mass-produced watercraft imported from the United States, says Steve MacAllister, vice-president of Langford Canoe and Kayak.

Photo courtesy of Langford Canoe and Kayak
Canoes have been a part of Canada's culture for hundreds of years and Ontario demand keeps manufacturers busy despite a surge in U.S.-built kayak sales.

"Canoes and Canada are one and the same," says MacAllister, whose 65-year-old company has its head office in Dwight, about 20 kilometres east of Huntsville, near the boundary of Algonquin Park.

"It's like hockey, it's part of our culture. People want a red canoe like the one (late prime minister) Pierre Trudeau had," he says. MacAllister adds that the vast majority of canoes and kayaks sold in the U.S. and Canada are toys.

"People buy those for playing at the cottage," he says. "When they want to get something better, they want a Canadian canoe."

Ontario produces about 7,500 of the 10,000 canoes made annually in Canada, MacAllister says. Langford makes about 1,000 canoes per year.

The first Ontario canoe factory opened in Peterborough in 1861. In the 1950s, about 4,000 canoes were sold annually, according to the Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives.

But the huge U.S. canoe manufacturing industry dwarfs Canadian canoe makers.

Between 90,000 and 105,000 canoes and 350,000 kayaks are sold annually, according to the Chicago-based National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA).

The NMMA says canoe sales in the U.S. have been dropping in recent years, and that more than 70 per cent of the kayaks sold in the U.S. are sit-in or sit-on plastic recreational craft.

"Canoe sales are cyclical and will likely increase in the future," says James Petru, the NMMA's director of market statistics.

Souris River Canoes saw its yearly sales jump to about 500 from less than 50 after it moved from Manitoba in 1992 to Atikokan, just north of Quetico Provincial Park.

The move brought its specialty canoes closer to the thousands of boaters who paddle the waterways that link Ontario and Minnesota, Robinson says.

About 25,000 people visit Quetico park annually. Another 200,000 visit Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is adjacent to Quetico, and Voyageurs National Park, which is on its western flank.

About 60 per cent of Souris River's sales now come from exports to the U.S., Robinson says.

Souris River canoes cost from $900 to $3,000, depending on the model. Langford canoes range in price from $800 to $4,000. High-quality kayaks sell for between $1,000 and $5,000.

In 2002, sales began to level off when more canoeists switched to kayaks, Robinson says. "We're now growing about one to two per cent a year in a very difficult market."

MacAllister says the U.S. market is "there for the taking," but adds that transporting the fragile, lightweight craft is "a logistical nightmare."

In New Liskeard, about 120 kilometres north of North Bay, Mid-Canada Fiberglass Ltd. operates its own trucking system. The company sells about 2,000 canoes annually.

Langford sells most of its canoes in southern Ontario. It deals with one U.S. distributor, which has its own trucks to make deliveries to other retailers.

"It is a lot easier to ship plastic kayaks wrapped in bubble wrap, piled up top of another," says MacAllister.

Because of the rise in the Canadian loonie against the U.S. dollar, Souris River is pushing into southern Ontario. "We need another major market for our boats," Robinson says.

This year, Souris River sold dozens of its canoes to private outfitters in Ontario's provincial parks. The outfitters equip thousands of canoeists paddling into the park interiors. "We sell our canoes and get exposed to thousands of potential customers," Robinson says.

Langford canoes have, for some time, been part of the canoe and kayak fleets maintained by private outfitters in the provincial park system.

More than 10 million people visited Ontario provincial parks in 2003, with the majority visiting those in the southern part of the province, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Four years ago, Langford began opening its own stores in urban centres to take canoes and related equipment directly to the customers. While sales at its Algonquin Park store declined, total sales increased by 25 per cent, MacAllister says.

"We were selling to people who would never normally come to Algonquin Park," he says.

The company now has year-round stores in Ottawa, Richmond Hill and Oakville, as well as a seasonal store in Port Carling. The Dwight store is also the head office, so it is open all year-long.

Langford's canoe sales have been increasing about four to five per cent annually, MacAllister says.

"Canoes are the pillar that just keeps everything going. We still have to sell the boat, but there are good margins on accessories like lifejackets, paddles and other high-end camping equipment," he says.

Robinson and MacAllister both believe the boom in kayak sales is over.

"People who bought kayaks a few years ago now have families, and kayaks are not for people with young children. They're buying canoes," Robinson says.

For wilderness travellers, "canoes are still the best boat for portaging in Canada's parks," MacAllister says. Kayaks can be heavier and more difficult to portage.

Langford sells about 500 kayaks made by other manufacturers annually, and MacAllister says he is cautious about future sales, noting they appear to be down from last year.

"We're on the fence about kayaks because they're very cyclical," MacAllister says. "A few years ago, you couldn't keep up with the demand for whitewater kayaks. We sold 150 white-water kayaks one year, a record sale. The next year we sold 13."

Souris has remained a canoe maker only, concentrating on developing new technologies such as a hybrid canoe that looks like a kayak with a removable cover and rudder. "We operated with the view that canoes will come back strongly," Robinson says.

MacAllister predicts that sales of high-quality expensive canoes, which is mostly what Ontario makers produce, will continue to grow. He expects more sales from the large urban areas where the children of immigrants will want to experience the unique experience of the Canadian wilderness in a canoe.

"People who would never travel up to Algonquin Park see the canoes at our Toronto stores and buy one," MacAllister says.

(Charles Wyatt can be reached at wyatt@businessedge.ca)