Scout Boats expands US headquarters with new $3m R&D facility

Scout Boats, Inc. is building a new, dedicated product development & engineering building (PD&E) on its manufacturing headquarters campus in Summerville, in the US State of South Carolina. The new US$3 million facility is set to be completed in spring 2022.

Of the 21,000 sq. ft. two-story building, 4,000 sq. ft. will be dedicated to Scout’s Research & Development (R&D) offices. The building will also house two new 5-axis routers for cutting new tooling and further advancement of the company’s design processes. The expansion will create fifteen new jobs.

“Our new dedicated PD&E building will allow us to house our research and development as well as our lead engineering teams under one roof here on campus,” says Scout CEO Steve Potts. “This is an important move for us because it combines all of our product development teams and incredible minds in one place, allowing them to work together and perform more efficiently so we can continue to develop new and exciting products for our customers.”

Scout Boats currently houses its R&D facility onsite in one of its four production buildings, Plant B, and once it’s moved to the new PD&E building this space will be allocated to additional Light Resin Transfer Molding (Light RTM) space for composite parts. Process engineering offices will remain inside of the four Scout plants respectively.

“Our manufacturing processes are part of our innovative edge in the industry,” adds Potts. “With our epoxy infusion, carbon fibre-glass, Light RTM, 5-axis routers, CAD programs, 3-D printers, and all the other state-of-the-art processes, tools, equipment and training we have invested into making Scout the absolute best boat in its class, we felt this next investment of our PD&E building expansion made perfect sense to execute. I’ve always wanted to keep our processes in-house as much as possible so we could control our outcomes and product consistency, and this is the next evolution of our continued growth here at the plant.”

“This new expansion will create the need for more employees here at Scout,” continues Potts. “Fifteen additional personnel for the PD&E expansion – on top of the fact that we’re currently hiring for 55 open positions across our facility – and with our ever-increasing retail demand, we’re projecting the need for an additional 100+ employees within the next year. But it’s not just ‘jobs’. We’re continually creating an environment where people want to learn, work, and further their career and future. We’ve created a campus with a strong labour force that takes great pride in their work and provides dedication to their duties. This helps us continually grow our Scout family and reputation with our customers, vendors, dealers, and within the marine industry.”