After 44-years in the RV business, Coachmen Industries is getting out.
The Middlebury based manufacturer is selling its RV division to Forest River—a largely cross-town rival.
“The world changed in September, and it’s gotten worse, and worse, and worse,” said Coachmen CEO and President Richard Lavers.
In what has become a dog eat dog financial world, Coachmen simply couldn’t get the financing it needed to keep making RV’s. “The people that had the money were very concerned about the liabilities in the RV business and the economic situation as well,” said Lavers.
The Coachmen RV division employs about 600 workers. The sale was said to be in the best interest of those employees.
“Instead of shutting the doors and turning people on the street, they've got jobs,” said Lavers. “It’s certainly in the best interest of our employees cause we’re going to be able to preserve eighty five to ninety percent of the jobs that they’ve had in this area.”
As for Coachmen, it will continue to keep a presence in the area, by keeping its corporate headquarters in Middlebury. Coachmen is keeping its manufactured home and specialty vehicle divisions. Together those units employ approximately 700 workers.
Coachmen feels it was in a good position to turn things around in its RV division, when things in the economy turned south. Officials feel that is why they were able to sell that division instead of simply shutting down.
A special shareholders meeting has been set for November 25th.
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