Heartland Recreational Vehicles, an Indiana-based RV maker, will permanently close its Sturgis, Michigan plant. According to the WOOD TV, they are laying off about 120 workers on June 20. The company, a subsidiary of Thor Industries, filed a notice with the state about the layoffs.
In correlation with the facility's closure, detailed in a WARN notice in compliance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, no severance will be offered to the employees affected by the layoffs, as reported by mLIVE. The Sturgis plant's shutdown follows a series of consolidations by Heartland RV, including the addition of a new parts warehouse and assembly plant in Elkhart, Indiana, aiming to enhance production efficiencies with cutting-edge technologies.
While details around the possibility of offering transfers to the newer facilities for Sturgis employees remain unclear, the regional economy braces for the impact of the job losses. Attempts to get a statement from Mark Dilworth, the HR director for Heartland RV, were unsuccessful prior to publication. The company has recently closed another manufacturing plant in Nampa, Idaho, last October, which had resulted in the layoff of 70 people, as detailed in MLive's reporting.
The ripple effects of the RV industry's latest restructuring reach beyond Sturgis. Thor Industries plans layoffs that may extend into the hundreds, affecting additional Heartland RV facilities in Elkhart and Middlebury, as well as potentially impacting a Cruiser RV plant in Howe, as detailed by the South Bend Tribune. All of these workforce reductions are poised to take effect on the same date as the Sturgis closure, leading to a period of significant transition within the company and industry at large.
