FOREST CITY, IA – Winnebago Industries, Inc.announced today its purchase of motorhome production facilities and equipment in Junction City, Oregon. In total, the investment to support this expansion is estimated to be between $15-20 million, including land, buildings, necessary modifications, production equipment and technology infrastructure.
Winnebago plans to move production of select diesel products to the 200,000 square-foot facilities, with the transition estimated to be complete sometime in the second half of calendar 2017. Initially, by moving the production of diesel products to the Junction City facility, Winnebago expects to increase its production of Class A gas and Class C motorhomes at the company’s headquarters in Forest City, Iowa. In addition, as demand for Winnebago’s diesel products increases, the Junction City facility will allow for increased production of diesel products.
“An increase in consumer demand for our motorhomes taxed the Forest City facility’s ability to keep up and caused us to look elsewhere to find a location that had sufficient labor capacity to meet those demands,” said Vice President of Sales and Product Management Scott Degnan. “We are pleased to be expanding our operations and look forward to the increased production and service presence this new facility will provide on the west coast. We would also like to express our thanks to Ron Lee, the former owner of the facilities, for providing us with this opportunity.”
“This purchase is part of Winnebago’s ongoing strategy to further solidify the company as a leader in the RV industry for years to come,” Degnan continued. “As part of the facility purchase, Winnebago also acquired the intellectual property rights associated with Country Coach and we intend to revive that brand as part of the planned use of the new facility.”
In addition, Winnebago entered into an agreement on November 18, 2015, with the Lee Joint Trust to purchase property adjacent to the facility mentioned above. This property was also part of the Country Coach operation in the past. Scott Folkers, Vice President and General Counsel said, “We have begun our due diligence evaluation of the property and hope to have that completed in the near future. We anticipate using this property to provide ongoing customer service to Country Coach owners, as well as providing service to Winnebago owners.”
