Brunswick Corp. on Tuesday announced further measures to drive greater efficiency and reduce the annual operating costs of its Marine businesses—both boat and engine—by an estimated $30 million to $35 million.
This follows the June 27, 2019 announcement of the streamlining of its corporate support functions related to the sale of its Fitness business.
“These actions will reduce cost in our marine operations and are consistent with the right-sizing of our corporate functional support organization announced last month,” said Brunswick CEO David M. Foulkes. “Together, these enterprise-wide programs will result in a reduction of approximately $50 million in annual run-rate costs, due in large part to a nine percent reduction in our global salaried workforce. These actions are designed to ensure that Brunswick is able to continue to aggressively invest in business transformation and growth initiatives across a broad range of potential economic and marine market scenarios.”
Today’s announcement includes the planned establishment of a leaner operating structure within Brunswick’s boat businesses, which will enable the company to more easily leverage synergies in certain areas of the business. This structure will also facilitate further initiatives to reduce both indirect and direct costs and take better advantage of Brunswick’s scale in market-facing organizations, all of which will allow for continued investment in new products and business initiatives to drive future growth.
Similarly, Mercury Marine, Brunswick’s engine division, has taken actions across its global propulsion and P&A businesses to streamline operations while continuing to invest in additional capacity for high horsepower engines, new product development and advanced technologies.
The large majority of actions announced today have already been implemented. There will be a partial-year impact in 2019, and almost all the $50 million of cost reductions will have a full-year impact in 2020. Brunswick stated it expects to record restructuring charges of $7 million associated with these actions.
“Actions like these affecting our colleagues and co-workers are never easy but are necessary for us to continue to invest in the future of our business. We thank the departing staff members for their service to Brunswick and wish them well in their future careers and endeavors. We deeply appreciate the commitment and contribution of all of our employees,” said Foulkes.
