Permanent job cuts at Sea Ray

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2008/06/26 - 11:57am.

KNS: Brunswick to close four plants, cut 1,000 jobs

Locally, 270 employees will lose their jobs at the Sea Ray plants in Knoxville and Vonore. Another 40 employees at the U.S. Marine plant in Dandrige, Tenn. will also be let go.

Notice the headline says "Brunswick," not "Sea Ray". Other outlets are reporting 2700 job cuts. No word yet on which four additional plants will be closed.

From the official Brunswick statement:

Brunswick stated that its $300 million cost savings target will be achieved in part by further shrinking its North American manufacturing footprint. The company plans to have 17 or fewer boat plants by the end of 2009, compared with the 29 it had in 2007. This will require the closure of four plants in addition to eight plant closures already completed or announced.

The company said that it had notified employees today that it would be reducing its hourly and salaried work force at certain of its marine plants by 1,000. Further work force reductions of approximately 1,000 hourly and 700 salaried employees across the company's marine business units and staff functions are contemplated as additional plant closures and consolidations and other cost-cutting measures are completed.

One of the cost cutting measures "will more efficiently provide common support functions and administrative services across all Brunswick business units, lowering spending in all functional and operations activities, and reducing its work force." What this means is that job cuts won't be limited to just blue-collar production workers.

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Factchecker's picture
Cheap oil means "water sports" for the masses

Well, it was a fun way to wreck the environment while it lasted.

Hayduke's picture
Expect the powerboat business to continue shrinking

Expect the powerboat business to continue shrinking. The number of people who can afford to zoom around getting 0.2 to 5 mpg is going to get smaller and the glut of used boats will make a shiny new one really hard to justify.

Factchecker's picture
$170/bbl oil soon?

Oh yeah, and it could get a lot worse.

Brian A.'s picture
I wonder when we will see

I wonder when we will see the local tourism industry start to take similar hits?

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Hayduke's picture
If you're talking about

If you're talking about Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, I doubt we'll be that lucky. Can anything kill the beast that ate the Smokies?

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