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May 17, 2012

Family Buys Back DuraCraft Brand

The Ward family, manufacturer of War Eagle aluminum boats, reacquired DuraCraft.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bill and Chick Ward established DuraCraft in 1945, but the family sold the business in 1984. Since then, the DuraCraft name has been bought and sold multiple times.

In 1992, a third generation of Wards—Mike and John Ward—decided to keep the family’s boatbuilding tradition alive by starting War Eagle Boats. After forming a partnership with Ducks Unlimited in the late 1990s, War Eagle became a premium watercraft for duck hunters across the Southeast.

In 2011, DuraCraft was sold in a liquidation proceeding, giving the Ward family the opportunity to buy back the DuraCraft name.

“We were given a chance to buy back the DuraCraft name started by my grandfather, and we jumped on it,” Team Ward Inc. president Mike Ward said in a statement. “At one time the DuraCraft brand stood as the pinnacle of quality aluminum products in the marine industry, and we at Team Ward look forward to restoring the Ward family’s rich heritage of customer satisfaction to the DuraCraft name.”


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© 2012 Boating Sportsman® Magazine Published by Harris Publishing, Inc.