PROPOSAL FOR OPENING A
MANUFACTURING FACILITY IN
EL SALVADOR
INTRODUCTION
Aqua-Tech's mission is to provide high quality SCUBA equipment to the rapidly growing international, recreational, commercial and technical dive community. SCUBA divers know no boundaries. They can be found in every corner of the world, from beneath the polar ice caps to nuclear containment systems.
Aqua- Tech currently has a small facility in its base state of North Carolina, manufacturing high-end, specialized diving equipment. Aqua-Tech has been very successful in meeting the needs of its customers; however because of high fixed and variable costs they have been unable to be competitive with larger, more established equipment manufacturers. It has been determined that setting up a manufacturing facility in El Salvador would decrease a number of costs, increasing the profitability of the company, while putting Aqua-Tech closer to the huge Caribbean dive equipment market.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN
Geography
El Salvador has an excellent geographic location for SCUBA equipment production. El Salvador is a small country, about the size of Massachusetts, found in Central America. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean, Honduras and Guatemala. Though there is limited diving currently in El Salvador, it shares a border with Honduras. Honduras contains some of the top rated dive locals in the world, having access to the second largest barrier reef. Honduras is El Salvador's third largest export partner. By manufacturing in El Salvador, Aqua-Tech gains access to Honduran and other Caribbean dive markets. Having access to the Pacific Ocean also sets up Aqua-Tech for easy importing of materials and then the exporting of the final manufactured products (Background . . .) ...