Copyright 2000 Times Publishing Company
St.
Petersburg Times
October 31, 2000, Tuesday
SECTION: CITRUS TIMES; Pg. 1
DISTRIBUTION: CITRUS TIMES
LENGTH: 585 words
HEADLINE:
Boat factory lays off 50 employees
BYLINE: BRIDGET HALL
GRUMET
DATELINE: CRYSTAL RIVER
BODY:
Pro-Line Boats says slow sales and high
gas prices prompt the layoffs of mainly production workers. The
company expects to be rehiring when sales pick up.
Sluggish sales,
rising gas prices and apprehension on Wall Street prompted
Pro-Line Boats to lay off 50 factory workers last Friday, but the company says
this "temporary" setback will not hinder its long-term expansion plans.
Johnny Walker, the boat manufacturer's vice president, said he hopes to rehire
those workers in the next two or three months, as long as boat sales rebound.
"The boat-buying public is in a cautious mode, and that has forced
manufacturers to reply in kind," Walker said.
A few office workers
were released, but most of the layoffs came in the production department. The 50
employees were dismissed based on skill level, not seniority, Walker said.
Boat sales traditionally wane in the winter months, Walker said, but
sales took a noticeable drop this year because gas prices are high and the stock
market has been bumpy, in part due to the uncertainty of the upcoming
presidential elections.
For the first six months of this year,
boatmakers nationwide have produced 10 percent more powerboats than the public
has bought, said Jim Petru, manager of marketing statistics for the National
Marine Manufacturers Association.
"We went for almost nine years in an
upward trend, but now we're coming to the end of that business
cycle," Petru said. "Consumers are not feeling as confident about the
economy as in the past."
Friday's layoffs and attrition over the past
six months have reduced Pro-Line's labor force by 20 percent, from 442
employees in April to 352 workers now.
But Walker said the latest
downturn has not stalled the company's plans to build a new factory in Holder.
The new facility is scheduled to open in January 2002 and create 200 new jobs.
"We anticipate this to be the short-term glitch that it is, and it
doesn't affect what we're going to do in Holder at all," Walker said.
Those plans hinge on several state and local grants that are based on
creating new jobs.
The Economic Development Council hopes to bring
Pro-Line's first grant application before the County Commission Nov. 7.
Under the job growth incentive grant program, Pro-Line would receive $
2,000 for each of the first 125 jobs created at its new factory. The company
would use that $ 250,000 toward impact fees and water and sewer connection
costs.
On that application, which was filled out in August, Pro-Line
stated it had 425 current employees. Walker said he expects he would not get the
grant money until he brought his employment base back up to 425 and then add the
125 jobs he promised.
The same goes for the pending grant application
for $ 700,000 from the state's Economic Development Transportation Fund, in
which Pro-Line promises to create another 200 jobs, including the 125 from the
first grant.
The county applied for that grant, based on the new jobs
Pro-Line would create, to pay or building a road to the Holder industrial park.
"There's going to be a little more work in tracking the new jobs that
are created because we don't want to try to take credit for jobs that were laid
off and then rehired," assistant Public Works director Ken Frink said.
Pro-Line's last layoffs were in October 1990, when the company
idled 67 workers, according to news accounts. Walker said most of those
employees were rehired within several months, and he expects history to repeat
itself in this instance.
LOAD-DATE: October 31,
2000 
