TENNESSEE SPOTLIGHT
Coming Home
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| The Sea Ray boat manufacturing expansion and other Brunswick Boat Group investments in East Tennessee will total more than $22 million. Company President Dustan E. McCoy (inset) says the firm considered other states and Mexico for the project but chose to build in Vonore, Tenn., because of its 26-year history of doing business in the area. |
by RON STARNER
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runswick Boat Group President Dustan E. McCoy knows a good deal when he sees one. So does the state of Tennessee.
When the world's largest maker of pleasure boats needed to expand its Sea Ray manufacturing operation, McCoy found the business location he needed right at home.
The Knoxville-based company an-nounced Sept. 14, 2004, that it will expand and modernize several Sea Ray operations in East Tennessee. The plan calls for Sea Ray to add more than 200 jobs and invest more than US$22 million into the region.
Sea Ray plans to double capacity at its Tellico factory in Vonore to concentrate production of its sports boats up to 22 feet (6.7 m.) in length. The Tellico plant will add closed molding, a high-tech method of boat production. The process improves product quality and factory productivity while reducing styrene emissions.
"Sea Ray has called the Knoxville area home since 1978, and it's clear that we are committed to the area," McCoy said. "When we undertook this project, we considered many places, but we kept coming back home. This region has everything we sought — a skilled and dedicated work force with a strong work ethic, a capable and diverse base of suppliers, a central location to serve our ever-expanding markets, access to technological expertise and resources, as well as a reliable source of cost-competitive energy. When we added up these attributes, along with the cooperative spirit of local, regional and state governments, our location decision was made easily."
A strong package of support from local, regional and state government agencies helped seal the deal. To prevent Sea Ray from expanding in another state or even at its existing plants in Reynosa, Mexico, Tennessee officials offered a wide variety of financial incentives.
Among them are a seven-year tax freeze from the Industrial Development Board of Knox County, valued at $1.7 million; a Technology Capital Grant of $1 million from the Development Corp. of Knox County's Board of Directors; $500,000 from the Tellico Reservoir Development Agency to expand the Tellico West Corporate Training Center; another $510,000 from TRDA for skill enhancements for Sea Ray workers; $414,000 from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development; and $303,055 from the Tennessee Depar tment of Economic and Community Development for the FastTrack Job Training Assistance Program.
The total package of incentives comes to more than $4.4 million.
McCoy, however, says that government incentives alone weren't enough to close the deal. "To point to the incentives and say they are the only reason we decided to improve and grow our facilities here ignores the deep roots we have in the East Tennessee community and its recognition of Sea Ray as a valued member of that community."
When the world's largest maker of pleasure boats needed to expand its Sea Ray manufacturing operation, McCoy found the business location he needed right at home.
The Knoxville-based company an-nounced Sept. 14, 2004, that it will expand and modernize several Sea Ray operations in East Tennessee. The plan calls for Sea Ray to add more than 200 jobs and invest more than US$22 million into the region.
Sea Ray plans to double capacity at its Tellico factory in Vonore to concentrate production of its sports boats up to 22 feet (6.7 m.) in length. The Tellico plant will add closed molding, a high-tech method of boat production. The process improves product quality and factory productivity while reducing styrene emissions.
"Sea Ray has called the Knoxville area home since 1978, and it's clear that we are committed to the area," McCoy said. "When we undertook this project, we considered many places, but we kept coming back home. This region has everything we sought — a skilled and dedicated work force with a strong work ethic, a capable and diverse base of suppliers, a central location to serve our ever-expanding markets, access to technological expertise and resources, as well as a reliable source of cost-competitive energy. When we added up these attributes, along with the cooperative spirit of local, regional and state governments, our location decision was made easily."
A strong package of support from local, regional and state government agencies helped seal the deal. To prevent Sea Ray from expanding in another state or even at its existing plants in Reynosa, Mexico, Tennessee officials offered a wide variety of financial incentives.
Among them are a seven-year tax freeze from the Industrial Development Board of Knox County, valued at $1.7 million; a Technology Capital Grant of $1 million from the Development Corp. of Knox County's Board of Directors; $500,000 from the Tellico Reservoir Development Agency to expand the Tellico West Corporate Training Center; another $510,000 from TRDA for skill enhancements for Sea Ray workers; $414,000 from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development; and $303,055 from the Tennessee Depar tment of Economic and Community Development for the FastTrack Job Training Assistance Program.
The total package of incentives comes to more than $4.4 million.
McCoy, however, says that government incentives alone weren't enough to close the deal. "To point to the incentives and say they are the only reason we decided to improve and grow our facilities here ignores the deep roots we have in the East Tennessee community and its recognition of Sea Ray as a valued member of that community."
