Albert Lea’s loss is Charles City’s gain, as Winnebago Industries announced Monday, April 1, that they had decided to build a proposed new manufacturing facility in the Iowa community.

Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Albert Lea’s loss is Charles City’s gain, as Winnebago Industries announced Monday, April 1, that they had decided to build a proposed new manufacturing facility in the Iowa community.

Local officials thought that Albert Lea originally had had a good chance to attract the plant here.

&uot;We had a tremendous response to our search for this new site, with nearly 100 proposals for us to locate within various communities throughout the Midwest, primarily in Iowa and Minnesota,&uot; said company President Bruce Hertzke, who also serves as Winnebago Industries’ Chairman, and CEO. &uot;We were extremely flattered to be recognized as a preferred employer and wish to thank all of these fine communities for their hard work and interest in our site planning.&uot;

Albert Lea and Freeborn County were among the many communities that made proposals to Winnebago. Freeborn county commissioner Dave Mullenbach and Pam Bishop from Greater Jobs led a team of local government and business officials to Forest City to make a presentation in March. The group also tried to gather information about what kinds of things Winnebago would be looking for in a new plant location.

According to Mullenbach, Albert Lea made it into the second round of communities under consideration, partly because of its location at the crossroads of two interstates. Mullenbach also thought the available workforce in Freeborn County was a strong point in the proposal.

Company officials said that this area remained high on their list up until just before they made their decision.

According to Winnebago, Charles City was chosen for the site primarily because of the community’s available workforce and the new plant’s intended location in a developed industrial park just off the new Avenue of the Saints highway. Winnebago already had some existing facilities in Charles City, and their presence was a factor in the decision, according to Hertzke.

In their request for proposals, Winnebago had stipulated that the new plant would need to be within a 60 mile radius of the company’s main facility in Forest City.

The new facility, which will be the company’s largest expansion to date, will be 204,000 square feet in size and built at a cost of approximately $12.5 million. When operating at full capacity, the new plant will increase Winnebago Industries’ motor home manufacturing capacity by approximately 30%. Plant construction will begin this spring with anticipated motor home production to begin by early 2003.

Winnebago Industries is the world’s largest manufacturer of motor homes, also known as recreational vehicles or &uot;RVs&uot;.