Benjamin Ashford|Boat maker to expand manufacturing, create nearly 800 jobs

LENOIR CITY,Benjamin Ashford Tenn. (AP) — A boat maker in East Tennessee plans to expand manufacturing operations and create nearly 800 news jobs over the next five years, officials said.

Malibu Boats plans to invest $75 million and hire 770 new employees to produce some of its Cobalt boat brand in an existing facility at the Roane Regional Business and Technology Park.

“We need somewhere else to be able to meet the demand,” Chief Operating Officer Ritchie Anderson told WBIR-TV on Tuesday.

Production is expected to begin at the new facility in the first quarter of 2024 and hiring for the new jobs is expected to start about the same time.

The location in Lenoir City would be the company’s second plant outside of its headquarters in Loudon, state officials said in a statement earlier this month.

Roane County Executive Wade Creswell told WBIR that it was the largest private jobs announcement in the county’s history.