Fleetwood sells military housing business

Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly

Bankrupt Fleetwood Enterprises sold the assets of its Trendsetter military housing business Friday to CMH Manufacturing, a day after receiving bankruptcy-court approval of the transaction.

CMH, a subsidiary of the Clayton Homes family of companies, purchased the business unit's assets for $4.5 million in cash.

Trendsetter manufactures modular barracks for the U.S. military in two adjacent facilities located in Belton, Texas, south of Waco.

Under the terms of the purchase agreement, CMH will enter into new contracts to complete current Trendsetter projects at Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bliss, along with another building at Fort Sam Houston. It is expected that CMH will make conditional job offers to most of the unit's employees.

Based in Riverside, Calif., Fleetwood filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early March and immediately closed five travel-trailer manufacturing and service sites, including one in Edgerton, Ohio. The company announced it would continue to operate its motor-home and manufactured-housing divisions while it sought buyers for them

Fleetwood has reduced its employment at its Decatur operations significantly in the last year, and the remaining 443 workers there have only been working about half time.

Fleetwood also has a housing plant in Garrett that employs about 80 workers.