Hockey stick maker outsources

Nov 05, 2007 04:30 AM Sean Gordon The Star.com
Sher-Wood to stop making wooden hockey sticks in Quebec as market splinters toward costlier gear.

MONTREAL–They've scored untold millions of goals on rinks, ponds and streets across the country, but in a few weeks' time workers will lovingly fashion the last of Sher-Wood's signature Quebec-made wooden hockey sticks.It's yet another sign of changing times: After 58 years, Sherwood-Drolet will, starting in January, farm out the mass production of wooden sticks and concentrate on the increasingly popular – and vastly profitable – business of making composite sticks fashioned from graphite, Kevlar and other synthetics.Drolet said his company will contract out its entire production of lower-end wood models to makers in such far-flung places as Estonia and China – although some small Quebec suppliers could still get a piece of the action.He expects wooden sticks will still form the bulk of Sher-Wood sales next year – last year the company sold about 1 million wooden and 350,000 composite models – but his plant had to sacrifice tradition to stay ahead of a shifting market.