In its latest expansion bid, Grand Design aims to shore up its customer service and expand production of its Imagine travel trailer lineup with the $11 million addition of two facilities, according to Grand Design President Don Clark.
Grand Design will aim for a September deadline for the addition of two 110,000-square foot facilities on a 50-acre property the company purchased near its current Middlebury, Ind. headquarters. The company initially announced the project in a brief release last week, saying it will host Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for an invite-only ground-breaking ceremony Thursday (May 12).
The expansion, which Clark said is largely self-funded, will house a dedicated service center, a production facility for the company’s Imagine product line and a campground for customers receiving factory repairs.
The company, which began in 2013, most recently completed the construction of a pre-delivery inspection and lamination facility late last year, and Clark said the new additions are necessary to keep up with service and demand for its three-year-old company.
“We (Grand Design founders) were a part of some really fast-growing companies prior, and we learned that the front end – the sales side – can quickly outstrip the support and service side, and that can cause some rocky roads for both the manufacturer and retail customer, as well as our dealers,” Clark said. “We did not want to go through that again.”
In addition to the service center, one of the two buildings will serve as a dedicated production facility for the company’s Imagine travel trailer lineup. The Imagine, the company’s first travel trailer product, currently shares a production facility with the Reflection fifth wheel and travel trailer line.
“We need to keep up with demand,” Clark said of the Imagine. “The product hit the market and is selling so well that our lead times are growing to an unacceptable wait-list for our dealers.”
The addition will increase production of Imagine products to between 26 and 30 units per day, nearly doubling its output, Clark estimates. Reflection production, which will expand to fill the existing facility, will increase as well.
Clark said the expansion of the company in the past three years has taken the founders by surprise. When founded in 2013 by Clark and brothers Ron and Bill Fenech, the group estimated that the original facilities, which covered 520,000-square feet of manufacturing space, would suffice for the first five or six years. Instead, the company will make two multi-million dollar expansions in as many years.
“We had no idea the product would be this well-received. ... We knew the product itself and we knew our business model was liked by the dealers, but we’re very blessed with the pace of the growth,” Clark said.
Prior to last year’s expansion, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered the Middlebury manufacturer $2.85 million in tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants, once the company has added 330 new Hoosier jobs. Additionally, Elkhart County was offered up to $250,000 in infrastructure assistance. The incentives remain the same, and Clark expects the latest expansion to contribute as many as 100 jobs towards that offer.