Hatteras Yachts, a boat maker that shed hundreds of jobs in North Carolina during the recession, has reaffirmed its commitment to one eastern North Carolina town.
The company, a division of Brunswick Corp., plans to add 350 jobs over the next five years at its New Bern manufacturing facility. The additional jobs are the result of Hatteras Yachts consolidating its operations and closing a plant in Southern California that makes Cabo brand yachts.
"Given the current state of the global marine market, we've been significantly underutilizing both factories," said Dan Kubera, a Brunswick spokesman.
The job growth expected at the New Bern plant is based on the company's belief that demand for recreational boats will improve, he added.
State officials voted Tuesday to award Hatteras Yachts incentives worth up to $3 million if it meets hiring goals and keeps 279 existing jobs at the Craven County site. Craven County is giving the company $900,000 worth of incentives.
The new jobs will pay average annual salaries of $31,425, slightly above the Craven County average of $29,848.
While the jobs would be a boost to the region's economy, the news follows widespread downsizing in the boat industry.
Hatteras Yachts employed more than 800 people in New Bern as recently as June 2008, but it struggled as boat sales slumped. The company closed a Swansboro facility in early 2008 and sold an Albemarle plant in Edenton later that year.
Some New Bern workers whom Hatteras Yachts let go in recent years remain unemployed, said Renee Sisk, a Craven County Commissioner.
"It's a big deal," Sisk said of the company's decision to shift the California plant's production to New Bern. "We're excited."
Kubera said the Cabo plant, which makes smaller sport fishing boats, employs fewer than 50 people. He said many of those employees will be offered the option of relocating to New Bern.
Hatteras Yachts began building boats in North Carolina about 50 years ago. Brunswick acquired the company in 2001.
This latest job-creation grant is the second one Brunswick has been offered in the past four years.
In 2007, the Lake Forest, Ill.-based company was awarded incentives of up to $4.3 million if it created as many as 858 jobs at a boat factory in Navassa. That grant was later terminated after Brunswick closed the plant because of weak demand.
Craven County needs more companies to reinvest in the community, Sisk said. The decline in tourism and the severe downturn in the real-estate market has left the region reeling.
"The whole economy has suffered down here," she said. "We used to be a really thriving community. We knew where the money would be coming in, and we haven't known that for a while."
