Fifty-seven years after founding B&L, Larry Lippert was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame in 2013. By that time, the third Lippert generation was running the family company, Lippert Components.
Larry Lippert and Don Baldwin founded B&L Industries in 1956 to make Duratop, a galvanized mobile home roofing. Baldwin sold his company shares to Lippert a year later after serving B&L’s first customers, mobile homes companies Detroiter Mobile Homes and Redman Industries. Lippert worked at Redman Industries for two years out of the U.S. Navy before starting his own company, which he now had full ownership of.
Lippert purchased Riverdale Steel Works, where B&L manufactured mobile home chassis and chassis components. After a slow start in the 1960s, the company started expanding quickly and was renamed Lippert Components, Inc. (LCI) following its acquisition of five manufacturing companies in 1969.
Doug Lippert became the family business’ second-generation president and CEO in 1976. Under him, Lippert acquired the assets of Riblet Industries, its largest competitor in the manufactured housing industry. Though Lippert started a joint venture with Riblet in 1972, this full acquisition led to LCI’s expansion in five states.
In 1997, Doug’s son Jason Lippert started his own travel trailer chassis line. Investor Drew Industries bought LCI the same year after seeing how the company provided 18,000 FEMA chassis units during Hurricane Andrew five years prior. Jason Lippert became LCI’s CEO in 2003 and Drew Industries’ CEO in 2013. Drew Industries officially changed its name to LCI Industries in 2016.
Though the company had acquired several RV chassis manufacturers throughout its history, LCI started its expansion into the RV accessory market in 2004 after acquiring LTM Manufacturing. Five years later, LCI had introduced more than 40 innovations to the RV industry, and today, are one of the leading companies in the industry. In 2012, LCI officially began its aftermarket sales division.
LCI rebranded in 2021 as Lippert, which today has more than 90 manufacturing and distribution facilities in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The supplier makes more than 40,000 windows and 3,000 trailer axles every day.
