Sea Ray Boats Plans To Close Flagler Beach Facility

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Flagler Beach, FL - Hundreds of workers at one of Flagler County's largest employers will soon be out of a job thanks to "persistently weak" yacht sales.

Brunswick Corporation - the Illinois-based owners of Sea Ray Boats - announced a restructuring today after attempts to sell Sea Ray and other brands it owns since last year failed.

That means the company will close the plant off Roberts Road "as soon as practical", according to Brunswick Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Mark Schwabero.

"Over the last several months, we have engaged in a thorough sale process for the Sea Ray business, which we believed would generate the highest value for our shareholders," Schwabero explained in a press release this morning. "Although there was interest in the business, the offers we received did not reflect an appropriate value for this premium brand and did not meet our expectations."

As a result, Schwabero says the company will now focus on other types of boats for Sea Ray, especially sport and cruiser.

"These combined actions will create a revitalized Sea Ray that will benefit from continuing synergy with our broader marine portfolio," Schwabero noted. "We believe that this is the best solution to generate value for our dealers and shareholders now and in the future."

Up to 825 positions will be cut as part of the restructuring, though it's not clear at this point how many will come from the Flagler Beach facility since another Sea Ray plant out of the area will also experience big layoffs.