Winnebago Industries Inc. is temporarily suspending most production activities at the company’s Winnebago, Grand Design RV, Newmar, and Chris-Craft facilities. The company has made the decision in response to the coronavirus pandemic and unforeseeable change in business circumstances that have accompanied it.
The company said temporarily suspending production is designed to lower the probability of coronavirus exposure to employees and allows the company to adjust future production output relative to a fast-changing demand landscape for Winnebago products.
Winnebago and its subsidiaries will remain open and perform essential activities for dealers and end customers, including remote dealer retail support, along with technical care, warranty administration, and parts fulfillment.
Each of the company’s businesses will suspend production during the week of March 23rd, and based on present conditions, will last through April 12 or until conditions warrant a status change.
“As this global situation continues to rapidly evolve, our top priority is the health and well-being of our employees, business partners, customers and communities,” said Winnebago President and CEO Michael Happe. “We are also seeing demand for our products shift dramatically as the nation takes appropriate action to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“This decision is not an easy one, but we are confident it is in the best interests of all our stakeholders. During this time, we will remain flexible with operations that can provide products related to the support of mobile health care, command centers and other logistical needs that local, state and Federal resources may require during this crisis.”
Winnebago will provide base pay and benefits for the first two weeks of the shutdown to support employees and their families affected by this temporary production suspension.
“As we take precautionary measures in the best interest of both our employees’ health and our long-term business prospects, we remain confident in the strength of our balance sheet and in our cash position to allow us to provide the appropriate pay and benefits to our employees and weather a period of business interruption from this health crisis,” Happe said.
Winnebago said it will continue to monitor the situation closely and is committed to executing contingency plans to ensure a safe work environment for employees and disciplined production strategies that benefit the company and its channel partners before resuming full operations.
