DeSantis, Waltz attend opening of Brunswick boat technology center in Edgewater – News – Daytona Beach News-Journal Online


DeSantis, Waltz attend opening of Brunswick boat technology center in Edgewater - News - Daytona Beach News-Journal Online

Brunswick Corp. opens a “world class” fiberglass boat technology center in Edgewater to become home to the boating industry’s largest group of engineers.

EDGEWATER — Gov. Ron DeSantis, Congressman Michael Waltz and David Foulkes, the CEO of Illinois-based Brunswick Corp. joined local dignitaries and Brunswick employees in celebrating the opening of the company’s new Brunswick Fiberglass Boat Technology Center here on Monday.

But the person chosen to cut the ribbon to open the multimillion-dollar technology center was not an elected official or a company bigwig. It was Eric Skaggs, a compliance specialist who has worked at the Edgewater plant for the past 21 years and been a Brunswick employee the past 43.

“I was surprised, totally,” he said after the event that was witnessed by more than 200 people including many of his coworkers at the technology center.

“Having everything come together under one roof and with the combined knowledge of the employees that are here is amazing,” Skaggs said, explaining that previously each of Brunswick’s boat brands, including Boston Whaler, Sea Ray and Bayliner, had their own separate research-and-development teams. 

The new 45,000-square-foot technology center is on the same corporate campus at 100 Whaler Way that includes Brunswick’s Boston Whaler boat plant.

The new “world-class” technology center has created several dozen engineering and design positions, according to Brunswick Corp officials. It will serve as a research-and-development center for new products for Brunswick’s Boston Whaler and Sea Ray boat lines.

Soundings Trade Only Today, a boat industry trade publication, reported in April that the technology center in Edgewater would merge the Brunswick fiberglass design team with the company’s Boston Whatler design department to create “the single largest group of engineers” in the boating industry.

Sara Moore, a spokeswoman for Brunswick Corp., said the new technology center was part of a bigger $42 million expansion of the Boston Whaler campus in Edgewater. Moore said the Boston Whaler plant, including the new technology center, now covers more than 70 acres.

The technology center employs 160 workers, including 30 at Brunswick Corp. facilities in Merritt Island and in Tennessee. Of those employees, 71 have been hired since October 2018.

“Today, we are 160 strong with over 1,500 years of combined industry experience,” said Lenn Scholz, the technology center’s vice president of product development. Plans call for the center to add 45 to 50 more workers over the next two years, he said.

Brunswick Corp. has also become the largest manufacturing employer in Volusia County, with a local workforce of more than 1,100, said County Councilwoman Deb Denys. “We love to see our manufacturers grow because we know in Volusia County, manufacturing offers the highest wages of any industry,” she said.

The company’s 1,100+ workers in the county all are in Edgewater, which is also home to a separate Brunswick Commercial and Government Products boat plant, said Samantha Bergeron, the city’s economic development/redevelopment coordinator.

“Brunswick’s Boat Group Technology Center will most certainly bring more highly educated and trained people to the community which will further enhance the opportunities available to match the growth in Edgewater,” she said.

DeSantis congratulated Brunswick Corp. on the opening of its new technology center.

“This portends greater things ahead,” he said, adding, “It will continue to make Volusia a great place to do business.”

Waltz, who represents the 6th Congressional District that includes Edgewater, praised the company for creating well-paying jobs, and he stressed the need to encourage more young people to consider careers in manufacturing and other professional trades.

Brunswick Corp. CEO David Foulkes told the crowd, “This new technical center is one of the initiatives we put into place to leverage the tremendous scale of the Brunswick organization.”

Huw Bower, president of the company’s Brunswick Boat Group, recalled standing at a podium at Edgewater’s Boston Whaler plant in January 2015 to break ground on a $10 million, 60,000-square-foot boat assembly building.

Since then, the company has invested an additional $42 million into additional expansion of its Boston Whaler plant.

“As demand outstrips our manufacturing capacity, we have continuously invested in this facility,” he told the cheering crowd. “Today, we’re celebrating an investment in capability. We are creating the most formidable design, technology and innovation team in the industry.”

 


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