The company making the famous Glastron boat line – which came of age on the silver screen – has announced plans to close.
The Glastron production facility in Michigan says it’s looking for a buyer even as it drops anchor.
The 230 employees at the Cadillac boat plant will lose their jobs unless parent company Groupe Beneteau gets an offer.
Along with the plant Beneteau is selling its Glastron, Four Winns and Scarab Jet brands.
The company cited continued weakness in the recreational boating market, which tanked after the COVID.
During the pandemic people saw boating as a safe, non-confined social activity so sales skyrocketed.
Glastron is known for its boat hull design innovations, including the Aqualift and “SSV” hull designs, the latter of which is still in use today.
The company cited a prolonged downturn in the bowrider and jet boat markets, noting that orders for the three brands are down nearly 30 percent compared to last year.
Glastron’s “Glastonbury” boats were featured in the James Bond films Live and Let Die and Moonraker.
For Live and Let Die, a boat chase was filmed in Louisiana around the Irish Bayou area.
Twenty-six boats were built by Glastron for the film, of which seventeen were destroyed during rehearsals.
The speedboat jump scene over the bayou, filmed with the assistance of a specially-constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with 110 feet cleared.
The waves created by the impact caused the following boat to flip over.
Jaws 3 also features several boats with the brand name on the sides.
Glastron, one of the first manufacturers of fiberglass boats, was founded in 1956.
They do not take glass boats in land fills. But old wooden down easters can rot a way.
Tried to purchase one once, but couldn’t swing the 5% down on a Bond boat.
Should have settled for a bonga boat.
Remember, if your floatin’, yer boatin’
or whatever floats yer boat
A lot of barely used boats on the market after the COVID spending spree, same with campers.
It’s the same thing that happened to companies like Gateway computer in 2000.
Because of the Y2K hysteria, both companies and people bought new machines and hence what would’ve been probably 10/15 years of purchases were compressed in 1998 and 1999. Well after everyone bought the new computers, they weren’t buying new computers because they already had new computers and the market imploded.
I think the same thing happening here, 10/15 years of purchases were all made in 2020, meaning that the boats won’t be purchased now.