Boston Whaler Announces Plant Closing and Consolidation to Edgewater Factory

[jimh]

On September 17, 2025 Boston Whaler employees at their Palm Coast plant were gathered for an announcement from Boston Whaler President Lenn Scholz that their plant was going to be shut down and its work consolidated into the Edgewater plant operation. The affected employees will be offered jobs at Edgewater, which would likely entail about a 55-mile one-way commute for people coming from the Palm Coast area. Any job cuts will be done through attrition.

The Palm Coast plant was previously part of the SEA RAY boats operation of Brunswick and employed 400 people. It had previously been closed down in c.2018, only to be re-opened as a Boston Whaler production facility in 2021 and expected to ramp-up to full operation by 2023, in response to what was then seen as a substantial increase in demand for Boston Whaler boats. Upon re-opening, the Palm Coast plant began building the 170 MONTAUK and 230 and 420 OUTRAGE models. After just four years of operation making Boston Whaler boats, the plant is closing again.

Brunswick indicated to Palm Coast officials that they do not have any plans at the moment for future operation of the Palm Coast plant. The reason for the shutdown was stated to be due to economics, citing that retail boat sales have been declining for the past five years.

More details from the FlaglerLive.com website at

https://flaglerlive.com/boston-whaler-shutting-down/

and

https://flaglerlive.com/boston-whaler-reopens-plant/

[Masbama]

That’s got to be tough on the people who may lose their jobs.

[jimh]

That’s got to be tough on the people who may lose their jobs.

Brunswick is offering all of the employees at the closing plant location a job at the Edgewater plant. Yeah, it is a long commute, but it is still a job offer. The boat manufacturing business is quite prone to economic cycles.

[jimh]

On the FLAGLERLIVE website an article has appeared in which a local property developer and builder demands that Brunswick not be allowed to close their plant, and, if they do, the plant and property should be given to some governmental agency for free, then resold, and the displaced workers given the proceeds of the sale.

The irony about this article is the guy writing it is the owner-operator of a capitalistic business himself: he buys property and develops housing on it on a rather large scale. I doubt he would be comfortable with the local government taking his property without compensation.

The follow-up comments to his proposal indicate that at least a few readers in that area are not big fans of government seizure of private property.

Read more at
Hell No: Boston Whaler Should Not Be Allowed to Exit
Without a Fight from Flagler County’s Leadership
https://flaglerlive.com/brunswick-boston-whaler/