John Kazimierczyk of Millbrook Boats is ready to retire and looking to sell his longstanding canoe-building company. Owning the company for more than 38 years, Kazimierczyk bills his canoes as “the lightest weight, highest performance, most affordable composite whitewater canoes in the entire world,” which have garnered a loyal following among whitewater canoeists.
According to the “Paddlers of Millbrook Boats” Facebook page, Kazimierczyk says the move has been a long time coming and he wants the brand to continue:
“Hello friends, this pains me to say it but Millbrook Boats is for sale. I’ve been thinking about this decision for quite a while. This sale includes the trademarked company name, all of the molds, plugs, most tools, and whatever raw materials I have left.
The prospective buyer ideally is young, ambitious, self disciplined, self motivated, self starter, will keep the name Millbrook Boats, and has a working knowledge of FRP(composites) construction. Without this basic knowledge, it will be a long learning curve. For example, the first thing that should be done is make a new mold for the “20/20” design.
For 38 years I have enjoyed being my own boss and setting my own work schedule. My “schedule” has always been based on recreation with some canoe building thrown in to pay the bills. I take pride in my work as you will be expected to do also.
I feel that the future of composite canoes and Millbrook Boats is still strong and there is still room to grow.
Again I’ll say it’s probably most important if you have a working knowledge and experience with FRP because mistakes can be very expensive. Bringing new designs on line every couple of years, tooling, and retooling to create new molds for the canoes is extremely important. Don’t stagnate.
Delving into CAD and creating new designs or modifying older designs, and access to a 3 axis CNC router for making plugs for new boat designs would be a great help, but not necessary.
It’s been a great life choice for me. It’s not glamorous work but it is rewarding.
If you meet any of this criteria or if any of this appeals to you, please contact me privately. Please don’t just ask “how much?” I’d like to hear more about you and your plan to carry Millbrook Boats for next 30 years. Thank you, John Kazimierczyk.
The company started with John Berry’s early Millbrook whitewater designs and continued after Berry sold Millbrook to Kazimierczyk in 1988. “Kaz” later developed other whitewater boats as well as poling canoe designs like the Souhegan and Coho.
Read more on Kazimierczyk here:
https://www.mensjournal.com/travel/currents-millbrook-boats