When the SeaRay plant shut down, over 400 employes lost their jobs there. The re-opening of the facility as a Boston Whaler plant is expected to result in 300 or more new jobs. Boston Whaler already employs over 1,200 people at its Edgewater, Florida, main manufacturing plant.
Brunswick CEO David Foulkes said:
We are committed to meeting the growing demand of our global customers and have an immediate need to expand capacity in the face of unprecedented retail demand and very low pipelines across all product lines, especially for our fiberglass products. Investing additional capacity in Florida, Mexico and Portugal allows us to quickly increase production and undertake further vertical integration as we continue to grow market share and engage with new boaters.
Aine Denari, Brunswick Boat Group president, said:
Expanding Boston Whaler production by reopening the Palm Coast facility provides immediate access to new capacity for a fraction of the cost of building a brand-new facility.
More information in the Brunswick Press Release dated January 25, 2021.
More about David Foulkes:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=839#p22495
More about Aine Delari:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=839#p35163
With regard to SeaRay, Brunswick announced in 2017 it wanted to sell the SeaRay brand, but finding no takers, in 2018 Brunswick announced it was going to "retain and revitalize" the SeaRay brand, but would discontinue the SeaRay sport yacht and yacht models. The Palm Coast plant made larger SeaRay yachts and was shut down.