Forest City-based Winnebago Industries is reporting strong revenue growth for fiscal 2017. The results are driven mostly by profits from its towable recreational vehicle division.
Revenue and income at Winnebago are up substantially from a year ago. The manufacturer of RVs brought in more than $1.5 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending August 26. That’s a nearly 59 percent increase from 2016. Operating income for the year improved by 90 percent to $125 million. Company president and CEO Michael Happe credits robust sales of its Grand Design towable division.
“Consolidated revenues were fairly evenly split between our motorized and towable segments," he says. "This is a far cry from the days when more than 90 percent of our revenue came solely from motorhomes.”
Happe says the results at Grand Design are leading to expansion of its Indiana plant.
“We are investing eight figures dollar-wise of capital into current capacity expansion on the Grand Design campus,” he says.
Happe says the increase in production for Grand Design will begin to show up on the bottom line by mid-2018. He says Winnebago also has expansion plans for facilities in Oregon and the home-base in Forest City.
Revenue for the motorized division dipped 2.7% for the year.