FERNDALE, Wash. -- Johnson Outdoors is closing its Ferndale plant.
The announcement was made Tuesday.
Company officials said 90 jobs will be lost when the canoe maker shuts down its Whatcom County facility.
The Wisconsin company is consolidating paddle sport operations to its Old Town, Maine, branch.
“Old Town was selected because of the depth of manufacturing that’s already there, as well as the capacity to expand in the future, and it also does provide a lower cost base for the company,” said Cynthia Georgeson, Vice President of Communications for Johnson Outdoors.
The move is expected to save Johnson $4 million a year, said Georgeson.
“We did a very comprehensive analysis, and that concluded that dual-site manufacturing is adding cost and complexity and redundancy, when we really needed the opposite,” she said.
Maine governor John Baldacci said his state and the City of Old Town teamed up to offer a package of incentives to Johnson Outdoors, in hopes of having the company expand there.
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