Master Craft

[MJHSupra]

For those that follow the wake boat makers, this was in the local paper.

Employees say MasterCraft is laying off dozens

MasterCraft Boat Company is headquartered in Vonore, Tennessee.

Published: Jun. 30, 2023 at 11:50 PM EDT

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Several employees told WVLT News they were laid off by MasterCraft Boat Company in Monroe County.

“It’s sad man. I felt a few emotions, anger, confusion, why me you know, and then the sadness seeing people hugging and crying. Walking through there and then looking at your work station one last time before you’re out of there. I am getting emotional right now thinking about it,” said an anonymous employee who was terminated.

This employee wanted to remain anonymous because some of his family members still work for MasterCraft. He said that on June 28, groups of people were led into a meeting with Human Resource Manager Kelly H. Moser, receiving a notice from MasterCraft telling them they were being terminated due to reduction in force and economic conditions posing unprecedented challenges to the marine industry. He said MasterCraft told employees a few weeks before the layoff that the plant would be cutting production from 20 boats a day to 10.

“People were trying to say goodbye you know, a lot of people got ran off, They couldn’t even go tell their friends that they’re out,” the employee said.

He said dozens were laid off and they were mostly factory workers, the people actually building the boats. MasterCraft told employees they could be called back to work in the next three months, but if they weren’t, employees could re-apply. Most of the former employees who reached out to WVLT News declined to do interviews out of fear they wouldn’t be re-called, but many were left wondering how they can survive during this time.

This employee is a single father and is responsible for taking care of his daughter and his mother.

“I take care of my mom, I got her bills to pay and stuff so I got to keep what money I have left and stretch it out until I find somewhere else to go,” he said.

WVLT crews drove to the MasterCraft plant in Vonore and asked a security guard to speak with someone about the layoffs. We were told we just missed human resources. We asked her to call them to come back to give us more information, there was no answer. MasterCraft is now on an eleven day break and when they get back, their first quarter of the fiscal year begins.

Chris Cannon with Tennessee’s Department of Labor and Work Force Development said companies are supposed to notify the state prior to a mass layoffs. He said the department was not notified yet.

“I’d like to say to them to keep their heads up, there’s no point to keep dwelling on it you know. I want to tell the company I’m extremely disappointed. You make quality boats, I figured you’d be a quality top tier company. If you don’t care about your employees but they don’t they could’ve given us a heads up so we could’ve started looking for other work,” he said.

Copyright 2023 WVLT. All rights reserved.


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[dfreeman]

Very sad for the employees and their families . I drive by our local MasterCraft dealer every day and their inventory is really full, I keep a pretty good eye on the local market as a whole in Seattle area and there is a ton more inventory than the last several years. This might be the beginning of manufacturers trying reduce cost and get back models that don’t require a mortgage payment. I have heard rumors of a new Moomba model, I wonder if it’ll be a bit more cost effective than the current offerings.

[haknslash]

Sad times and it’s tough with the bloated market prices with everything. Homes, boats, automobiles, groceries you name it. I feel for those workers who lost their job. I had to leave my job of nearly 20 fairly recently and man, it was a shell shocking experience getting back into the job search and employment grinder!

I’d love to see prices come back down. Part of why I haven’t upgraded to a Supra or other brand is I can’t really stomach paying the bloated cost that has shot up over the last couple of years. I got my Max when you could build one out for less than $100k and still be happy. That’s a bit harder to do now as optioning it out makes the price climb quickly. I don’t have $200k toy fund to blow on something I use 1/2 the year, sometimes less.

[sandm]

I think this is just the first of such announcements to come before the end of the summer. if I was in the toy industry, I'd have stopped hiring a minute ago and use any gaps via overtime. I was losing 5 workers a week in our warehouse the first 5 months of this year on a staff of 115.. last month I only lost 6 total. the labor market is slowly balancing but there's going to be some pains along the way. OI is back to pre pandemic levels for sale and I got a lunch that says another 15% of boats added before the end of the summer.

makes me wonder if nautty is rethinking the decision to relocate supreme to the east. they were supposed to be ramped up to full production end of the year. bet it doesn't happen.

[MJHSupra]

MC is a public company and they produce more boats verses a company like SC. So the decision making progress is probably a little different too.

We will see if BU follows.

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[HFarr]

I think this is just the first of such announcements to come before the end of the summer. if I was in the toy industry, I'd have stopped hiring a minute ago and use any gaps via overtime. I was losing 5 workers a week in our warehouse the first 5 months of this year on a staff of 115.. last month I only lost 6 total. the labor market is slowly balancing but there's going to be some pains along the way. OI is back to pre pandemic levels for sale and I got a lunch that says another 15% of boats added before the end of the summer.

makes me wonder if nautty is rethinking the decision to relocate supreme to the east. they were supposed to be ramped up to full production end of the year. bet it doesn't happen.

Their new Supreme factory in Valdosta Georgia is up and running now.

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[larry_arizona]

Bad recession coming, automotive usually gets hit first, GM and Ford made huge white collar cuts and now all the suppliers are cutting hard.

Not good.


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[Holdmybeer]

A recession is not really a bad thing. It's like a factory reset on the economy. The problem is going to be the inflated cost of everything will need to come down. The interest rates haulted all large purchases and you see prices starting to drop already.

However, because of inflated cost, you have inflated payroll. No one is going to take a pay cut so now it's do the same (or more) with less manpower (layoffs) which has already happened since Covid. Hopefully it balances out, but I doubt it. Those white collar jobs were high paying and available jobs will be at much lower salaries.

[Mobius22]

SC is in a better position inventory wise, just so everyone is aware. A lot of manufacturers overbuilt this year and the chickens are coming home to roost now.

[Holdmybeer]

SC is in a better position inventory wise, just so everyone is aware. A lot of manufacturers overbuilt this year and the chickens are coming home to roost now.

Mobius, good to hear. I just wish labor and material cost would drop so SC could offer better deals. I know it's not all at the manufacture level and dealers are trying to cash in also.