Burton followed through with their decision today to move their manufacturing department out of the headquarters located in South Burlington, Vermont. This means 43 jobs will be cut from the factory and outsourced to Austria. While many of Burton’s boards are currently manufactured overseas already, some of the higher prices boards were still being made in the Vermont location, until today.
Jake Carpenter, the company’s founder and chairman, says,
“Simply put, it costs us significantly more to produce a board in Vermont than we are capable of selling it for.”
In other words, a smart business decision for Burton but a tough break for all snowboard manufacturers in the Vermont area. Last time I checked there weren’t an abundance of board factories in the north eastern US. However, Burton will still maintain 377 jobs in the Vermont HQ for R&D.
This really sucks, and my heart goes out to the people and families that may be affected by this. It’s a shame to see Burton strip any jobs from Vermont, let alone the entire manufacturing department. After all, Vermont did play the major role in snowboard innovation.
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