Brunswick Corporation is increasing production capacity at three of its global boat manufacturing facilities to meet unprecedented consumer demand and replenish historically low field inventory levels.
Brunswick will reopen its 21,000m2 Palm Coast, Florida boat manufacturing facility to expand dedicated manufacturing capability for Boston Whaler products by 40 percent. The Palm Coast facility, inactive since 2018, was designed to manufacture large boats.
Since 2014, Boston Whaler has invested more than US$60M in a line of award-winning new products, while simultaneously expanding manufacturing capacity at its 51,100m2 global headquarters and manufacturing centre in Edgewater, Florida by 75 percent.
In 2019 Brunswick also opened the 418.1m2 fibreglass boat technology centre in Edgewater for its boat product development, engineering and design teams.
In addition, Brunswick is expanding boat manufacturing capacity at its Reynosa, Mexico and Vila Nova Cerveira, Portugal facilities.
The Reynosa facility, which manufactures Bayliner, Heyday, Sea Ray and Lund fibreglass boats, will increase capacity by 58 percent over the next 18 months, running seven days a week and adding 260 new staff.
The Vila Nova expansion plan is well underway: over the next three years, production capacity at the facility, which manufactures Bayliner, Uttern and Quicksilver products for the European market, will more than double.
“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 fibreglass products,” said Dave Foulkes, Brunswick Corporation CEO.
“We looked at various options to significantly expand manufacturing capacity quickly and with efficient investment levels”, said Aine Denari, President, Brunswick Boat Group. “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.”
Boston Whaler currently employs more than 1,200 employees in Edgewater and will add an additional 300-400 jobs over the next 18-24 months at Palm Coast, a short distance from the Edgewater site. The first boats will come off the production line at the Palm Coast facility in the second half of 2021.
