Winnebago Industries will close last remaining Charles City facility

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
Winnebago Industries announced Wednesday that the Charles City Hardwoods Division facility will be closing, with the first layoff effective Sept. 8, then the final layoff and closing on Dec. 12, resulting in a total of 44 employees losing their jobs.
The listing was made on the Iowa Workforce Development website for the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, where employers with 100 or more fulltime employees must give notice of plant closings or significant layoffs.
The notice says 18 Charles City employees will be laid off in September, then the final 26 in December.
Winnebago also announced that 77 employees would be laid off in Waverly when a facility there is closed in September.
Tim Fox, the CEO of the Charles City Area Development Corp., said its important to concentrate on the workers and their families who are losing jobs.
He said the CCADC would coordinate with Iowa Workforce Development’s Rapid Response team to assist those laid off providing resume assistance, interview preparation, hiring events, unemployment assistance, etc.
“They’re going to have transferable skills,” Fox told the Press about the laid-off workers. “And if not, IWD will work to provide training if there’s a concentration of skill shortages.”
Fox said the economy appears to be softening and the demand for workers may not be as strong as it has been, “but I would guess that most of the people that have been employed, if they don’t choose to retire, we’ll be able to find jobs.”
Fox said he is also available personally to help displaced workers devise their reemployment strategies. He can be contacted at 641-228-3020 or tfox@charlescituia.com.
Fox started in Charles City at about the same time the Hardwoods Division became the first Winnebago facility in the community.
“It’s very poignant for me in that I was hired in August of 1998, and this is the first project that I had the opportunity to work on in Charles City, and we had it all tied up by September,” Fox said, talking about the Hardwoods Division closing.
The company was attracted by the availability of a spec building in the community’s Southwest Development Park that was ready to go, and the soon-to-be-completed Avenue of the Saints that would provide easy transportation access, he said.
“They came into the community when we had a very high unemployment rate,” Fox said. “And our advantage, other than the forthcoming Avenue of the Saints, was that we had many people that had transferable skills that had worked for White Farm Equipment.”
Winnebago was always very pleased with the low employee turnover rate at its Charles City facilities in comparison to its other operations, he said.
At one time there had been more than 200 people employed at Winnebago’s Charles City Hardwoods Division, at 1100 11th St. in the Southwest Development Park, according to Press files. That number had been closer to 80-100 in recent years.
Charles City Hardwoods is a 100,000-square-foot facility that had been responsible for fabricating, assembling and finishing wood cabinet and countertop components for the various assembly lines for Winnebago motorhome production, according to information from the company.
Winnebago had closed the smaller of its two local manufacturing facilities, the Charles City Assembly Facility, in July 2024, laying off 36 workers who were making smaller van-based recreational vehicles, and moving that production to Winnebago’s facilities in Lake Mills.
The Assembly Facility, at 1200 11th St. in the Southwest Development Park, has now been purchased and refitted by Curbtender, a Cedar Falls-based manufacturer of refuse collection vehicles, street sweepers and similar vehicles, which is using the site to produce front-loader trash collection vehicles.
The closing of the Hardwoods Division marks the end of more than 25 years of Winnebago presence in Charles City.
After opening the Hardwoods Division in 1998, it added the Charles City Assembly Facility in 2000 to assemble the company’s Ultimate motorhome line – diesel-powered RVs that were the company’s largest and most luxurious models.
In 2003, Winnebago built and opened a new 217,000-square-foot motorhome manufacturing and assembly building in the SW Development Park. It started with about 300 employees, and the goal was to produce 3,000 to 4,000 motorhomes a year.
Also that year, the company expanded the Hardwoods Division plant and added an additional 50 employees there.
By 2005, Winnebago reported 632 employees in Charles City, with 310 at Charles City Manufacturing Facility, 206 at Charles City Hardwoods Division, and 116 at Charles City Assembly Facility, all located in the SW Development Park.
Winnebago’s fortunes took a nosedive in the later years of that decade, with gas prices above $5 a gallon in some parts of the county, high interest rates that made it more difficult to purchase the expensive vehicles, and waning consumer confidence slashing sales.
“It is realized that Charles City operations have been subject to the whims and ebbs and flows of a consistently volatile RV market,” Fox said.
In the summer of 2008 Winnebago closed its biggest Charles City facility, laying off what was then a workforce of 270 salaried and hourly employees.
That property would be reopened in 2014 as the new home of CGS Tyres, a division of the Czech Republic-based MITAS, which would later become Trelleborg, and is now Yokohama TWS North America.
The Assembly Facility closed last year, and before this year is over the Hardwoods Division will also be closed, ending more than a quarter century of Winnebago production in Charles City.
“They’ve been an honorable employee and a good corporate citizen for Charles City, so we hate to see them go,” Fox said.
“Beyond the immediacy of this closure, the community and Winnebago Industries will have a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility to market,” Fox said. “This is an opportunity to demonstrate our economic competitiveness as we replenish jobs lost.”
Workforce Development coordinating response for impacted Winnebago workers
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
Iowa Workforce Development has activated its Local Rapid Response Team to assist the 44 workers affected by the upcoming closure of the Winnebago facility in Charles City.
Sara Cook, a business engagement consultant for Iowa Workforce Development, said the agency is in the process of organizing meetings with the employer to gather information and plan support activities.
“Every layoff situation is difficult,” Cook said. “Our intention is to work as one community to help minimize the impact as much as possible and assist those workers in finding new, promising careers as quickly as possible.”
Following initial employer discussions, a worker information meeting and additional support events will be organized.
“It’s critically important then that coordination occurs between all workforce partners, to ensure that disruptions don’t occur throughout the entire process,” she added.
Local job leads, job fairs and business recruitment efforts will be key strategies in attempting to retain impacted employees within the community, she said.
“Above all, our primary goal is to help retain as many impacted workers as possible in your local area before inviting other businesses to participate,” Cook said.
Community businesses and other organizations interested in supporting these efforts can contact Cook at Sara.Cook@iwd.iowa.gov.

Winnebago Industries History in Charles City
• September 1998 – Winnebago Industries announces opening of Hardwoods Division in Charles City at 1100 11th St. in Southwest Development Park.
• October 2000 – Charles City Assembly Facility opens at 1200 11th St. to assemble company’s new Ultimate brand diesel motorhome, the company’s largest and most luxurious.
• April 2002 – Winnebago announces plans to build a $12.5 million, 204,000 square foot manufacturing facility near its other two facilities in the Southwest Development Park, expected to hire more than 300 people to produce Class A of Class C motorhomes, increasing the company’s total manufacturing capacity by 30%. Charles City was selected from more than 100 proposals by communities throughout the Midwest.
• May 2003 – Manufacturing and assembly facility opens with 217,000 square feet of space; grand opening ceremony includes Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, IDED officials. CEO Chair Bruce Hertzke says plant opened with 359 employees and plans to add 100 more. Goal is to build 75 units per week – 3,000-4,000 per year.
• July 2003 – Winnebago announces plans to expand Hardwoods Division facility by 37,500 square feet and add 50 employees.
• February 2004 – Winnebago plans CDI LLC paint facility in industrial park to support production facilities; 46,300 square feet, $3 million, 50 jobs.
• March 2005 – Winnebago reports 632 employees in Charles City – 310 at Charles City Manufacturing Facility (CCMF), 206 at Charles City Hardwoods Division (CCHD), 116 at Charles City Assembly Facility (CCAF).
• August 2005 – Winnebago confirms layoffs are coming because of plummeting RV sales driven by rising gas prices, high interest rates and low consumer confidence – continues through end of the decade.
• October 2005 – Winnebago announces moving Ultimate Class A diesel motor home manufacturing back to Forest City, but employment expected to remain stable in CC.
• August 2008 – Winnebago closes CCMF, laying off 270 salaried and hourly employees.
• November 2010 – CGS Tyres of Prague, Czech Republic, takes over closed CCMF plant (CGS a division of MITAS, then Trelleborg, now Yokohama).
• March 2014 – Company announces shifting Class B production from Charles City to Lake Mills
• July 2024 – Charles City Assembly Facility closes, laying off 36 employees.
• December 2025 – Charles City Hardwoods Division closing, laying off 44 since closing was announced in July.
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