Scout Exands In South Carolina

Citing a strong demand for its larger boats, Scout Boats has announced plans to expand at its South Carolina facility.
Company founder and owner Steve Potts said the latest expansion is really phase four of a four-part plan developed when the company built its current facility in 1995.
“It’s a 40,000 square foot expansion that was slated to start last year,” Potts told Boating Industry, “but in light of [the terrorist attacks of] 9/11 and all of the uncertainty that went with it, we pushed it back.”
Potts said the $2 million expansion will be complete by March 1. The company is already adding employees so they can be trained and ready to build boats as soon as the facility is ready.
Scout Boats currently produces approximately 1,400 boats per year, Potts said. With the expansion, the company will be able to produce about 250 additional boats per year.
Those boats will be among the largest in the Scout line.
“In the last 24 months, we have gotten into the bigger boat market, which to us means we’re designing boats in the 24- and 28-foot range, and those boats have been received very strongly,” Potts said.
Scout was founded in 1990.
“We’ve had a very, very good year in 2002 and so far the early response has been very good for 2003, based on dealer shows and consumer shows,” Potts said.