According to published reports, Sea Ray Boats shut down production at its Vonore plant and at two other East Tennessee plants through the end of July. Office workers were not affected by the shut down and some production workers are eligible to draw a large percentage of their salaries during the shut down.

Sea Ray did not return calls from The Advocate & Democrat but representatives have said publicly that the company is letting its existing inventory catch up to its demand.

In an e-mail to The Advocate & Democrat late Thursday, Dan Kubera, director of media relations and corporate communications for Brunswick Corporation, Sea Ray’s parent company, released the following statement:

“In managing our business, Brunswick is – and has been – producing fewer boats and engines to reduce marine pipeline inventories in the face of continued weak retail demand for boats.

“As part of this effort, we have been taking downtime at all of our plants at various times this year. Indeed, we will be suspending production at most of our U.S.-based fiberglass manufacturing plants during July, which includes Sea Ray. Employees who are directly involved with boat manufacturing will go on temporary furlough during this time, while employees involved with such areas as sales, customer service and administration will report to work. These actions are part of managing a cyclical marine business.

At Brunswick, we will continue to closely monitor the marine market, and act accordingly.”

In November 2007, Sea Ray of Vonore reported to the Monroe County Economic Development Board that the Monroe County plant employs 675 people.