Sea Ray lays off more workers at Merritt Island plant

[Dave S]

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20081114/BUSINESS/811140326/1006/NEWS01

The article states they had 1200 workers at Merritt in February and if I am doing the math right after this round of layoffs they will only have 195 left. Doesn't Merritt produce the larger Sea Ray Cruisers?

One has to wonder when the economy starts recovering and the demand for boats increases how the quality levels of the boats produced will be affected if they have to hire inexperienced workers:huh:.

 

[StressAweigh]

I think they produced boats up to 54. I know at one point in time you could take delivery of you boat rite at the factory

 

[AKBASSKING]

I called SR to see if they gave tours of the plant......NO:smt089

 

[Boulder GT3]

The depth of the boat sales funk is pretty amazing.

I was at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show two weeks ago. I've never been and was astounded at the amount of money they spend to put the show together. I found out that one very high end yacht company with boats in the $3M-$6M range usually sells 20-25 boats at the show. This year, they sold one. Ouch.

 

[avguy]

I was at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show two weeks ago. I've never been and was astounded at the amount of money they spend to put the show together.

A friend of mine's company handles the AV for the Merrit Island show. It's a chunk......

 

[67vetteal]

At my age I've seen good and bad economies come and go. Sad part for me is the working man/woman suffers with the loss of Hand's On type jobs. It's good for them that this country has generous unemployment programs. For those of us that are lucky/smart enough to be solvent threw these times will see higher prices for used quality items, SeaRay included. JMHO Al W.

 

[mawyatt]

At my age I've seen good and bad economies come and go. Sad part for me is the working man/woman suffers with the loss of Hand's On type jobs. It's good for them that this country has generous unemployment programs. For those of us that are lucky/smart enough to be solvent threw these times will see higher prices for used quality items, SeaRay included. JMHO Al W.

I've been through a few of these as well and really feel for those folks that lost their jobs...tough times indeed!!

SeaRay has another problem because they adopted an automated system to reduce the labor. You can't layoff the machines and pay for them whether they are producing or not. This I'm sure is adding salt to the wound!!

Mike

 

[thunderbird1]

Brunswick stock price is $2.44 (a year ago it was trading at $22). Even with cost savings associated with the layoffs, Brunswick may find it difficult to stay in business?