WAKARUSA, Ind. (AP) — The new owner of Monaco RV has announced plans to close its factory near South Bend that employs 520 people and move production work to another plant near Fort Wayne.
Allied Specialty Vehicles said Thursday that it was buying Monaco and several of its brands from Navistar Inc., but that it would move production from Wakarusa, about 20 miles southeast of South Bend, to Decatur, about 20 miles southeast of Fort Wayne. Allied executive Jim Meyer said the company owned by a New York-based private equity firm would work on turning around the RV company’s financial troubles.
“We feel very confident in our ability to work our way through the financial piece of this thing and restore these brands back to where they’ve been most of their lives,” Meyer told the South Bend Tribune.
Meyer said the Wakarusa factory won’t accept new production orders and that its work will wind down in August. An undetermined number of jobs will be added in Decatur, and workers from the Wakarusa plant will be able to apply, he said.
Meyer said Allied will try to sell the Wakarusa facilities and he hopes many of the workers will find jobs there.
Meyer told The Elkhart Truth ASV’s primary goal is to restructure the Holiday Rambler and Monaco and RV businesses.
“In order to restore the businesses and the brand, which we are very excited about for the future, we are going to need to take action,” Meyer said.
No changes are planned for employees at the Elkhart facility, where R-Vision products are made.
Thor Industries in Elkhart announced earlier in the month that it had sold its ambulance division, SJC Industries, to ASV. Meyer said the two recent purchases in the Elkhart area are not related.
“Our goal is to be a great company that produces specialty vehicles,” Meyer saidh. “The timing of the two acquisitions is coincidental. These were the first two acquisitions we’ve undertaken in a year, and they just happened to be back to back.”
