BRUNSWICK

Brunswick announced today it will shutter its Cumberland, Maryland plant, currently the site of Trophy fishboat production, and lay off approximately 115 employees.  Trophy production will be transferred to an existing plant in Ashland City, Tenn.  In what Best Buy the other day described as a "seismic" shift in the economy and consumer spending, the boat production business is plain old bad.  Brunswick alone has closed 12 other North American plants over the last two years.  We don't hear about a lot of the closings because many of the companies, unlike Brunswick, are not public and are therefore not required to make such decisions known.  But the effect is the same.

In other bad news, the trade publication Soundings Trade Only reported that Sea Ray has laid off 60 employees from its Product Development and Engineering Center at Merritt Island, Florida.  According to the publication, the total workforce at the end of October at the PDEC was 255.