Sea Bags stitches up expanded benefits package

Courtesy / Sea Bags Sea Bags, a maker and retailer of totes and accessories from recycled sails, currently has just over 60 manufacturing employees in South Portland and Portland.

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By Renee Cordes

Sea Bags, a maker and retailer of totes and accessories made from recycled sails, will reduce the employee contribution to health care costs in 2023 as it grapples with hiring hurdles.

"This past year has been the most challenging for hiring we have ever faced," Don Oakes, the company's CEO, told Mainebiz. "There is so much competition for too few people in the workforce and, as a result, I don't know of any company that is not short-handed, including us."

The company employs more than 60 people in manufacturing in South Portland and Portland, where Sea Bags is based, and needs at least 10 more, Oakes said. The total workforce count is 233 employees, according to Oakes.

On the manufacturing side, he said that entry-level positions are the hardest to fill.

"In the past," he noted, "hiring seamstresses has typically been the hardest positions to fill, but we've been more successful at finding qualified candidates for these positions this past year."

Besides advertising job openings on LinkedIn, Craigslist and various job boards, Sea Bags has a number of team members who devote a lot of time to recruiting and interviewing, Oakes said.

He also said the company enhances its benefits package for all employees, including manufacturing, on an annual basis.

Besides reducing the employee contribution for health care costs, next year the company will offer an additional paid holiday, billed as an employee-choice Diversity Day.

The moves come as manufacturers across Maine get more strategic about hiring and recruiting as many of their older workers retire.

Asked about striking the right balance of finding skilled workers who can also meet the physical demands of manual labor, Oakes underscored that the company has a wide variety of roles that require different levels of experience and physical abilities, "so we are able to find roles for most any qualified and interested candidates."

He added that "it is a balancing act for sure."

Oakes was honored as a 2022 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year in the large-company category.