Advertisement

  Stock Sponsor
Click here for full stock listings


Published: August 12, 2009 3:00 a.m.

Garrett plant gets new life

Fleetwood OKs bid by area investors; more jobs predicted

Marty Schladen
The Journal Gazette
Advertisement
At a glance
When Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. declared bankruptcy in March, it was bad news for three area communities. How they’ve fared:

Decatur – Fleetwood’s motor-home operations were sold in July to American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IV L.P. About 650 workers had to reapply for jobs that pay 10 percent less than their old ones did. More than 1,300 worked for Decatur in Fleetwood before layoffs began in 2008.

Garrett – Fleetwood’s manufactured-housing plant is selling this week to a local company, Adventure Homes LLC. The 80 employees working there will get the same base pay but increased bonuses. Management hopes to add scores of jobs next year.

Edgerton, Ohio – Fleetwood shut down its travel trailer plants in March, including one in Edgerton that employed 175. The plant remains closed, and Fleetwood still is looking for a buyer.

A group of area buyers said Tuesday that bankrupt Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. accepted its bid for a manufactured-housing plant in Garrett.

The plant, which employs 80, was slated to close this month. But the buyer, Adventure Homes LLC, was notified Tuesday morning that its bid was accepted, said Wally Comer, general manager of the plant and one of its new owners.

“We’re pretty excited around here,” Comer said.

Cavco Industries Inc. is in the process of buying most of Fleetwood’s manufactured-housing assets, but the Garrett plant wasn’t among them.

Fleetwood spokeswoman Sydney Rosencranz said the sale of the Garrett plant and the seven plants to be sold to Cavco are on the agenda for a bankruptcy hearing scheduled for 4 p.m. today in Riverside, Calif.

Walt Fuller, owner of M&S Steel Corp. in Garrett, and Jerome Henry Jr., a Fort Wayne investor, are Comer’s partners in the purchase.

Comer said numerous manufactured housing plants have closed in recent years, leaving the field to those remaining.

“Capacity has dropped dramatically,” Comer said.

He predicts that sales will increase as the economy improves, allowing Adventure Homes to increase its workforce to between 125 and 150 next year. About 150 worked at the plant before Fleetwood declared bankruptcy in March, Comer said.

Comer also plans to increase employee bonuses.

Base pay will stay at $12.60 an hour. But with productivity bonuses, average pay that’s now about $16 an hour will increase to between $19 and $20 an hour, Comer said.

When a private-equity group bought Fleetwood’s Decatur motor home operations last month, workers’ pay was cut by 10 percent.

Fleetwood’s last day as owner of the plant will be Friday, Comer said.

The Garrett plant makes single- and double-wide mobile homes and modular housing. It measures output in terms of “floors” – the equivalent of a single-wide mobile home. It is making three or four floors a day, Comer said.

“This plant could make a lot of money if we can get to six to eight floors a day,” Comer said.

The prospect of a growing, profitable business is welcome in DeKalb County, which saw unemployment jump to 13.9 percent in June from 6.2 percent in June 2008.

“It’s like a war zone up here,” Comer said.

mschladen@jg.net