By Josh Weinhold, Truth Staff
jweinhold@etruth.com
MIDDLEBURY -- Another local recreational vehicle manufacturer shut down Friday, just months after increasing production and adding workers at two facilities.
Pilgrim International, a Middlebury-based manufacturer of travel trailers, fifth-wheels and toy haulers, indefinitely laid off workers, partner Dave Hoefer said.
"It's most unfortunate," Hoefer said in a voicemail to The Truth.
Hoefer and other Pilgrim officials did not return phone messages left Friday.
The company employed 178 people at four facilities in Elkhart County, media reports said.
Pilgrim, founded by Hoefer in 2002, recently began building its RVs with a new lightweight composite material. Demand for the vehicles was so high that in April the company expanded production and hired new employees at two of its facilities.
The company came close to merging with Yakima, Wash.-based Western Recreational Vehicles last year, but the deal fell apart in September.
At the time, Pilgrim was ranked by rvbusiness.com as the 15th-largest producer of towable RVs in the country.
Hitting home
Pilgrim's indefinite layoffs add to the list of recent cuts by local RV makers.
Coachmen Industries, another company based in Middlebury, laid off 261 workers in the second quarter.
Any time a major employer announces cutbacks it hits the community hard.
"I'm trying to be as optimistic as I possibly can be," said Carl Eash, owner of Varns & Hoover Hardware Store in downtown Middlebury.
Nevertheless, Eash said the industry and the community have survived tough times before and can do it again.
"We've been around for 121 years and hopefully we can weather a couple more storms," he said. "But it's not easy and it's not fun."