With boat sales slowing down and some boatbuilders laying off staff, the news in the marine world has been pretty bleak as of late. So the announcement yesterday that Fountain Powerboats is about to undergo a multimillion-dollar expansion is welcome indeed.Fountain received a Job Development Investment Grant from the state of North Carolina, which is intended to create 250 jobs over the next few years and invest $12 million in its operations over the same time period. Reggie Fountain, founder and CEO of Fountain, says the goal is to bring Baja Marine, which he recently acquired from Brunswick, into the same factory where the rest of his boats are built.
"In effect, we will be the largest sportboat builder in the world when we get things going with Baja," Fountain told the Washington Daily News. "Between Fountain and Baja, we will be producing more than $100 million per year when we get going. That is conservative. I expect we will do more."
Maybe he'll get former President George Bush to take a look at the new line—although considering Bush Sr. just took delivery of his third Fountain, a 38 Center Console named Fidelity IV, an extra spin around the harbor might be called for.
1 comment:
That is not true. As a former Fountain employee laid off in late 2008 the factory waste so much money on unnecessary overtime when the lot was full of unsold boats both fountain and baja and the production could have been met with managers and some employees doing their job. It would make you cringe to see the waste at fountain and the buddy system. Good job performance does not mean security but walking around the plant and talking and not working is job security. These things have been seen with my own eyes and others will back this response.
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