In the largest expansion project in its 44-year corporate history, Winnebago Industries is motoring in to Charles City, Iowa, to build a 300-employee, 204,000-sq.-ft. (18,360-sq.-m.) assembly plant. At full capacity, the new US$12.5-million facility in northern Iowa will alone increase Winnebago's annual production of motor homes by some 30 percent, assembling 3,000 to 4,000 motor homes a year.
        The midwest site search began in February, the same month in which Statistical Surveys named Winnebago as 2001's top selling U.S. manufacturer of motor homes.
        "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," said Winnebago Chairman, CEO and President Bruce Hertzke. "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."
        Among those interested hard workers was Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who personally lobbied to land the assembly plant.
        In the end, though, the site search team parked Winnebago's project on some very familiar turf. The company had located two component manufacturing plants in Charles City within the past three years.
        "Charles City has been an excellent partner for Winnebago Industries. We couldn't be more pleased with the success of our two current facilities, our excellent work force and the great relationship we have with the Charles City community," said Hertzke, whose managers will also benefit from the area's relatively high unemployment rate.
        The new plant will be located in Southwest Development Park on a 25-acre (10-hectare) site. That tract lies adjacent to Winnebago's two existing component plants. With the three operations' close configuration, components will travel only a matter of feet before becoming part of the final assembly process.
        The new assembly operation will lie alongside what's been dubbed "the Avenue of the Saints" -- a moniker that reflects the route's connecting linkage between St. Louis and St. Paul. Construction work on the Avenue of the Saints has widened U.S. Highways 18 and 218. Significantly, those roads connect Charles City with Forest City, the Iowa town some 66 miles (106 km.) away that's home to Winnebago's headquarters. Plant construction will begin after pending incentives from the city, county and state have been approved. – Jack Lyne