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Nearly 400 Sea Ray employees laid off, and that's not the limit.

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Sea Ray laid off 380 people and closed its engineering center in Merit Island, Florida.

The official reason is to consolidate the business and exit the 40+ foot market.

The company is merging Sea Ray's remaining facilities with Boston Whaler to become the Brunswick Fiberglass Boat Center.

For Sea Ray's former employees there is hope: Viking Yachts is ready to hire them. Those who wish to continue their careers at Viking Yachts will have to relocate; open positions are in Riviera Beach, Florida and at the company's headquarters in New Gretchen, New Jersey.

The reductions at Merit Island are tied to the phasing out of two other Sea Ray facilities - Sykes Creek and Palm Coast. In total, Brunswick Corporation, which owns the Sea Ray brand, intends to lay off 825 people.

Brunswick Corporation announced the sweeping layoffs in late June. «The corporation had been trying for months to find a buyer for Sea Ray, but eventually abandoned the idea and said it would retrain» employees and «revitalize» it instead of selling the brand.

«For the past several months, we've been in the process of selling Sea Ray, explained Brunswick Chairman and CEO Mark Schwabero at the time. - Although the business community has expressed an interest in buying Sea Ray, the offers we have received have not reflected the true value of this brand and have not met our expectations».

According to the owners, the reason for Sea Ray's undervaluation was the weak financial performance of the industry as a whole.

After a failed attempt to sell the yard, Brunswick management decided to refocus on sports boats and cruising boats and not to produce motor yachts under the Sea Ray brand.

In addition to Sea Ray, Brunswick's portfolio includes Mercury and Mariner outboards and the Bayliner, Boston Whaler, and Meridian boat brands.

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