Area Development
Winnebago Industries, Inc., a recreation vehicle manufacturer, plans to add a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Lake Mills, Iowa.

The firm said Winnebago and the city of Lake Mills have come to an agreement on the 5-year lease of the 100,000-square-foot plant formerly owned and operated by Cummins Filtration. The Lake Mills facility will be used for the production of Winnebago's Class B motorhomes; initially the firm’s new Travato model will be built on the Ram ProMaster chassis.

"This is a definite win-win for us," said Winnebago Chairman, CEO and President Randy Potts. "The Lake Mills facility is much larger than our current Class B production facility in Charles City and allows us to expand our growing Class B motorhome line."

“Winnebago's Class B market share in the U.S. has been steadily rising…With the close proximity of Lake Mills, it's very cost effective to transport components and motorhomes the 16 miles between Lake Mills and our headquarters in Forest City. In turn, it allows us to transition our current Class B production facility in Charles City to additional subassembly operations,” he said.

“We plan to begin the process of staffing and equipping the Lake Mills facility immediately with the goal of starting initial production by early February. Our Charles City facility will continue to manufacture Class B's as we transition to our Lake Mills facility, and move other subassembly operations to Charles City."