Fond du Lac, Wis. (WBAY) – Mercury Marine announced big changes to its Fond Du Lac plant Monday reviling it will be expanding and converting the space from distributions to manufacturing.
The company plans to move its distributions center to a new 512,000 square foot facility near Indianapolis, Indiana. They say the new space is in a strategic location that will improve delivery and service to Mercury’s global customers while adding much-needed capacity for scale, stability, and reduced logistics costs.
“The Marine industry this year is, has grown exponentially, certainly over the past 20 or so months after COVID and with us at Mercury Marine and Fond du Lac, we are at a place right now where we need to continue to expand,” Lee Gordon, the Communication Director for Mercury Marine said.
Meanwhile, Plant 3 in Fond du Lac, Mercury will make two additions to its foundry and one to its machining facility, adding 100,000 square feet to its global headquarters. With these additions, Mercury will now have three million square feet of manufacturing in Fond du Lac.
“What really is happening is we are expanding and we are just turning plant three into, manufacturing production for our outboard engines. We are in desperate need of more facility and more production,” Gordon said.
Gordon said while Fond du Lac will be experiencing a lot of changes, they are dedicated to keeping all their employees, employed through the changes. They also plan to train all current employees to fit new positions if they want them.
“Everybody who is there is still going to be working at Mercury Marine, still going to be working in fond du Lac, Wisconsin. There, there will be a learning curve, but it’s extremely exciting. I think it’s an opportunity for everybody to continue to grow with,” Gordon said.
Mercury also plans to hire an additional 300 employees.
Since 2009, Mercury has now invested more than $1.7B in capacity and expansion growing to now more than 4,000 employees in Fond du Lac. Gordon hopes this expansion will prove to the city that they are here to stay, and invested in the community.
“Fond du Lac as our home Fond du Lac, like as our global headquarters, it has been for more than 80 years. And that’s never going to change,” he said.
All facilities are set to be up and running in 2022.
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