Winnebago CEO and President Michael Happe told RV PRO on Friday that the RV maker has made minimal, temporary reductions to its workforce in Forest City, Iowa.
“Early this week, 25 employees in a couple departments within north Iowa were asked to take some time off for the next four weeks,” Happe said. “In a manufacturing environment – and one that is undergoing a lot of change at Winnebago in trying to evolve our operations and supply chain practices – there are certain parts of the business that, sometimes, you need to slow down, and certain parts of the business that you need to speed up. …
“In any manufacturing environment that I’ve worked in, you make workforce adjustments as needed, against the seasonality or demand of the business. And at times you ask people to work overtime or Saturdays, and at other times you slow things down in certain areas. This is not an across-the-board layoff in any way, shape or form.”
The furloughs are limited to Winnebago’s Forest City facility, and those 25 workers are expected to be brought back at the conclusion of four weeks, according to Happe.
“I know the word ‘layoffs’ has been used. In other organizations, the word ‘furlough’ might be used. Our employees used the word ‘layoffs’ and I’m not going to disrespect that this isn’t serious to those who were impacted, because it certainly is. But, this is not a permanent layoff. … It’s a couple of departments where we made some adjustments.”
The Winnebago CEO said that, as a public company currently preparing to release its second quarter financial results, he wasn’t at liberty to share any details related to current RV production levels at the Forest City facility.
Happe did note that Winnebago Industries currently employs 4,000 people when including the RV maker’s Grand Design division and that the company is 40 percent bigger today than it was just a year ago, prior to the Grand Design acquisition.
Happe added that Winnebago remains very optimistic about its prospects moving forward.
“We remain very excited about our company’s future,” he said. “The Grand Design acquisition is about three months old, formally. We feel very good about that business and the team that leads that business, and our potential within that division. Our Winnebago Towables is certainly moving in the right direction as well. And we’ve got a lot of energy around our motorhome division, trying to improve that business as well.
“And so, we’re 40 percent larger than we were a year ago, when you look at it on an annualized basis. We’re more profitable. We’ve got more presence in towables. We’re introducing – especially in the Winnebago brand – (products) to younger consumers through our growing towables business there. We’re less cyclical because of our towables’ portfolio mix now,” Happe added. “So, we feel very strong about our potential and our prospects. … From a corporate standpoint, we continue to be very optimistic about our future.”