Wednesday, January 30, 2008
COACHMAN IS CONSOLIDATING
RV Business
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Coachmen Industries Inc. outlined several cost-cutting measures as part of the company’s ongoing restructuring plan during a conference call with investors Tuesday (Jan. 29), including consolidating its corporate headquarters in Elkhart, Ind., into its manufacturing complex in nearby Middlebury.
The recreational vehicle and manufactured housing builder cited the impact of “bleak conditions” in its core markets during 2007, resulting in a 15% decline in revenue and a net loss from continuing operations of $33.8 million.
During the conference call, Coachmen President and CEO Rick Lavers noted: “As a result of the restructuring we undertook, the redirection of the company we launched, the new products we introduced and the cost reductions we made, we expect to make a profit in 2008, even if our markets do not fully rebound.” Lavers replaced Claire Skinner, daughter of co-founder Tom Corson, in August 2006.
The company said it is in the process of moving its corporate headquarters to Middlebury and will sell the facility in Elkhart.
“As we no longer have any manufacturing operations in Elkhart or Edwardsburg, (Mich.), Elkhart offices really no longer make sense,” Lavers said. “This relocation will reduce our costs and use empty office space at the complex, eliminate the time inefficiencies of many daily 45-minute, one-way trips by executives and managers between Elkhart and Middlebury.
“We will increase senior management interactions by having all of our senior RV housing and corporate offices housed in one location, and perhaps most importantly, we will place the corporate officers in the middle and where the action is, closer to the manufacturing operations that are at the heart of our business, in fact on our major RV manufacturing complex.”
Other restructuring moves by Coachmen include:
• Consolidating all Class A production into one plant and all travel trailer production for its Indiana facilities into one plant.
• Consolidating two support plants at its north Middlebury complex to the primary Middlebury complex.
• Sale of its paint facility in Elkhart and moving operations to Middlebury.
• Significantly downsizing its West Coast service center and subleasing the 65,000-square-foot plant.
“These actions have improved our overall capacity utilization to approximately 70% from the prior utilization of less than 50%,” said Michael R. Terlep, president of the Coachmen RV Group. “ We are pleased to report that our consolidation action plan has been fully executed and we are tracking ahead of plan in overall cost savings of $7 million annually.”
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Coachmen Industries Inc. outlined several cost-cutting measures as part of the company’s ongoing restructuring plan during a conference call with investors Tuesday (Jan. 29), including consolidating its corporate headquarters in Elkhart, Ind., into its manufacturing complex in nearby Middlebury.
The recreational vehicle and manufactured housing builder cited the impact of “bleak conditions” in its core markets during 2007, resulting in a 15% decline in revenue and a net loss from continuing operations of $33.8 million.
During the conference call, Coachmen President and CEO Rick Lavers noted: “As a result of the restructuring we undertook, the redirection of the company we launched, the new products we introduced and the cost reductions we made, we expect to make a profit in 2008, even if our markets do not fully rebound.” Lavers replaced Claire Skinner, daughter of co-founder Tom Corson, in August 2006.
The company said it is in the process of moving its corporate headquarters to Middlebury and will sell the facility in Elkhart.
“As we no longer have any manufacturing operations in Elkhart or Edwardsburg, (Mich.), Elkhart offices really no longer make sense,” Lavers said. “This relocation will reduce our costs and use empty office space at the complex, eliminate the time inefficiencies of many daily 45-minute, one-way trips by executives and managers between Elkhart and Middlebury.
“We will increase senior management interactions by having all of our senior RV housing and corporate offices housed in one location, and perhaps most importantly, we will place the corporate officers in the middle and where the action is, closer to the manufacturing operations that are at the heart of our business, in fact on our major RV manufacturing complex.”
Other restructuring moves by Coachmen include:
• Consolidating all Class A production into one plant and all travel trailer production for its Indiana facilities into one plant.
• Consolidating two support plants at its north Middlebury complex to the primary Middlebury complex.
• Sale of its paint facility in Elkhart and moving operations to Middlebury.
• Significantly downsizing its West Coast service center and subleasing the 65,000-square-foot plant.
“These actions have improved our overall capacity utilization to approximately 70% from the prior utilization of less than 50%,” said Michael R. Terlep, president of the Coachmen RV Group. “ We are pleased to report that our consolidation action plan has been fully executed and we are tracking ahead of plan in overall cost savings of $7 million annually.”
