Manufactured-housing, RV maker Fleetwood files for bankruptcy

Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly

The struggling economy has claimed a major local employer.

Manufactured-housing and recreational-vehicle maker Fleetwood Enterprises filed for bankruptcy today and announced it is seeking buyers for its motor-home and housing businesses.

The Riverside, Calif.-based company, which has multiple plants in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio, said it has commenced the closing of its travel-trailer division but would continue to operate its motor-home and manufactured-housing businesses, at least for the immediate term, while it seeks buyers for those businesses.

The shutdown of the trailer division will affect three manufacturing facilities and two service facilities, including one in Edgerton, Ohio, which employs 175 people. The shutdown will occur within 30 to 45 days, said spokeswoman Rivian Bell.

The trailer division accounted for losses of $65.3 million in 2007 and $16.8 million in 2008. The company is also laying off an additional 65 corporate associates.

Fleetwood makes motor homes in Decatur, where it also has a Gold Shield parts and service facility. Its total employment in Decatur is about 730 people, down from about 1,300 less than a year ago.

Fleetwood's manufactured-housing plant in Garrett employs 93.

Although the company said it is seeking buyers for the motor-home and manufactured-housing divisions, it is not contemplating a liquidation, Bell said.

"That's not the objective. That is not a word in our vocabulary," she said.

While Fleetwood believes it has sufficient cash to operate its businesses in the immediate term, the company is also in discussions with its senior secured lenders for new, debtor-in-possession financing to supplement its existing working capital. As of Jan. 25, it had cash in the bank of about $23 million.

The bankruptcy filings do not include any of the company's foreign or nonoperating entities.

Today's events follow three years of restructuring that management undertook in the face of worsening market conditions and, more recently, unprecedented credit restrictions affecting both dealers and customers.