A DeKalb County manufactured-housing plant that was slated to close next month is now expected to remain open, thanks to a $1.75 million bid by two businessmen and the plant’s general manager.
About 80 people, including 60 plant workers and 20 office staff members, work at the Garrett plant owned by bankrupt Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. That number could roughly double by next June if the new ownership meets its production goals.
Walt Fuller, who owns M&S Steel and two other companies near Fleetwood, his business partner Jerome Henry Jr. and plant general manager Wally Comer submitted a $1.75 million bid to buy the plant in May. The group had submitted a bid for “considerably less” but that was turned down, Comer said.
The higher bid was accepted by Riverside, Calif.-based Fleetwood, Comer said. It will be filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in Riverside, which is handling the bankruptcy proceeding.
The new company would be called Adventure Homes of Garrett, Indiana, but the product would be the same.
Comer said the goal is to make to six to eight “floors” – each floor representing a single-wide or half a double-wide home – five days a week. The bankruptcy process has slowed business, he said, and the plant is currently making three floors about four or five days a week.
If the plant meets production goals, Comer said Adventure Homes could employ more than 150 by June 2010.
With no other bidders on the horizon, Comer hopes the new owners will be able to take over between Aug. 6 and Aug. 15. He concedes that others could make a play for the plant but doesn’t see that as likely. Another bidder, Cavco Industries, submitted an offer for seven of Fleetwood’s 10 total plants but not the Garrett plant.
“Quite frankly, I think we will probably get this company,” Comer said. He acknowledged that saving jobs was a central motivation, but said the move wasn’t purely philanthropic.
“I think this is a good business,” he said. Comer hopes to raise plant workers’ wages from $17 to $18 an hour to $20 or more and offer profit-sharing.
