Mercury Marine breaks ground on new Industrial Design Studio

Rich Palzewic

Staff

June 1, 2026

FOND DU LAC – Mercury Marine, a division of Brunswick Corporation, is investing in a new Industrial Design Studio in Fond du Lac aimed at strengthening product design, innovation and collaboration.

Company President John Buelow said the 18,000-square-foot, two-story facility is designed to support modern design and development and reflects the company’s long-term commitment to its people, processes and innovation pipeline.

Buelow said the new studio brings the team together in a single, integrated environment designed to improve efficiency and foster creativity.

“Over the past few years, we have consistently continued to invest in our operations and our new products,” he said. “We’re on a roll, and we’re excited about the design studio, too. We already have incredible industrial design capabilities at Mercury, but this is going to enable us to really raise the bar on what we already have.”

Passionate about enhancing the boating experience of its customers worldwide, Buelow said uniting its design team in one location will help boost creativity, safeguard innovation and improve product development.

“It’s really an integrated space right in the heart of the campus here in Fond du Lac,” he said. “At this campus, we have 3.1 million square feet, where we have all our engineering and all our product management, plus a lot of manufacturing.”

With the design team located between the engineering and product management areas of the campus, Buelow said collaboration will be improved and friction points reduced, ultimately leading to shorter development cycles for customers.

“Most importantly, this is about continuing to deliver exceptional products and experiences for our customers,” he said.

Beyond strengthening Mercury’s internal capabilities, Buelow said the new studio represents an investment in the Fond du Lac community, reinforcing the company’s long-standing presence and commitment to the region.

“By expanding high-skilled design and engineering operations locally, Mercury Marine continues to support job growth, attract top talent to the area and contribute to a strong, innovation-driven local economy,” he said.

Enhanced capabilities

Though Mercury always had “top-notch” design capabilities, Buelow said the new space will be a “significant” upgrade from its current capabilities.

One such example, he said, will be the Advanced Visualization area.

“This area will allow us to have immersive reviews, where you’re in the middle of it, so we can review concepts and quickly evaluate them,” he said. “We already have a model-making lab, but this will be a new and improved state-of-the-art model-making lab. We can take our ideas and translate them into a physical form, so we can review them and refine them quickly.”

Buelow said another feature of the facility will be the Observation Lab, designed to observe how people use and interact with Mercury’s products.

“This way, we can see opportunities to improve and improve the usability, for example,” he said. “In the future, the studio will also include clay-model capabilities.”

Buelow said the facility will also include controlled access entry for employees and guests, second-floor offices, conference rooms and project spaces, along with capacity for future expansion as Mercury’s design needs continue to evolve.

He said construction of the design studio is expected to be complete by January 2027.

“From a physical structure standpoint, we are thinking it will be completed around the end of this year, and then all the equipment will go in,” he said. “We’ll be able to fully utilize the space early next year.”

Now and into the future

Though the space will be fully used within a year, Buelow said the design studio is a significant investment in what comes next for the company.

He said that though the facility may look like a simple upgrade with new equipment, it represents something much broader.

“It’s a statement about how we think about our future, how we invest, how we continue to innovate and how seriously we take the customer experience,” he said. “It really reinforces our commitment to leading the industry, not following it.”

Every time Mercury introduces a new product, Buelow said the company is introducing industry-leading features and benefits to the market.

Those features and benefits, he said, include performance, fuel efficiency and reliability.

“You take that incredible engineering and combine it with our industrial design, and that makes our products highly desirable,” he said. “It’s this perfect combination of incredible technology and an elevated, highly desirable user experience that gives consumers exactly what they need. It will really elevate people’s time on the water.”

With Mercury’s roots dating back to 1939, Buelow said technology has “obviously” improved and become more efficient.

Having said that, he said he doesn’t feel there is a limit to “what’s next?”

“If you think about boating, it remains very strong,” he said. “We never relax. People love boating, but their expectations continue to increase, and our commitment is to continue to provide more intuitive, more reliable, enhanced experiences. We’ll never be complacent.”

Buelow said everything Mercury does is a “very long-term plan.”

“We are agile and flexible,” he said. “If you think about the organization, we have a long-term commitment and strategy based on several different pillars. Those pillars are product leadership and exceptional customer experiences. We’re always thinking about what we need to continue to raise the bar in those areas and take it to the next level.”

The Business News will reach out to Mercury Marine in 2027 for an update when the Industrial Design Studio is fully operational.