Horse-trailer plant adding 50 jobs

A northeast Iowa company will be hiring 50 employees to add customized living quarters to horse trailers.

Featherlite Inc. in Cresco has been selling such trailers, but the work has been performed since 2007 by another company in Indiana.

Scott Milburn, Featherlite operations manager, said there is enough demand for the trailers with living quarters to bring the work to Cresco.

'The horse market demand has opened up quite a bit in the last 18 months,” Milburn said. 'We unveiled these trailers at our dealer meeting in September. There was a very positive response.”

Milburn said the trailers have recreational vehicle certification, enabling them to enter RV parks. He said Featherlite also has achieved bronze-level LEAD certification.”

Featherlite offers horse trailers with eight different floor plans for a kitchen, restroom and sleeping area.

The trailers include rear stalls for two to six horses.

Featherlite employs about 550, down from 900 before the recession of 2008 slashed demand for its products. Milburn said the company, owned by Universal Trailer Corp. of Cincinnati, has been rebuilding its Cresco workforce as product demand has increased.

Milburn said the company has rehired some employees who were laid off when sales declined. He said the living quarters installation has created an additional production shift.

Featherlite also manufactures other types of trailers, including livestock, car, recreation (ATV, motorcycle and snowmobile) and commercial/utility models.

The company, founded in 1973, sells its consumer trailers through a network of about 180 dealers, primarily in the United States and Canada.

Featherlite's specialty trailers are sold directly to buyers through the company's specialty sales office at its corporate headquarters in Cresco.