We learn all about this when we arrived for service. It was also mentioned by Bill Osborne, President of Monaco in a recent interview.
We also learned that Monaco has taken a 10 year lease on the Service center building where we are. The admin building already has been leased as a call center for the State Police.
Monaco is still finishing up the last few coaches and is auctioning off the equipment so the actual sale to Mr Lee will take place sometime in the future.
As I said in a previous post this sale means that Monaco Coach production will never return to Oregon. They did move the Trailer production that was here to Harrisburg, OR. Trailers will be made in Oregon and in Elkhart. The Elkhart trailer production will be in the Roadmaster Chassis plant that Navistar bought back out of the "Custom Chassis" business bankruptcy (this was a joint venture between Navistar and Monaco). Originally when they purchased this building back it was with the intention that Workhorse would share the facility with Roadmaster, but now that Workhorse has ceased production of RV chassis the building will apparently be shared between Roadmaster and Trailer production.
The Wakarusa plant will build all gas and diesel motorhomes along with the electric utility vehicle that was started there last year.
The Oregon Service building will also house a few admin departments that are not moving to Wakarusa, IN or Lisle, IL. It will also house the Technical service center (open for any Monaco owner to call for help - free) and national parts.
Our Service Writer is off today. Wednesday was her husbands last day at Monaco after 23 years. He has found a good job, but it is in Portland. I feel really bad for the Monaco employees here in Oregon. They have been on a real roller coaster for the last few years. I am really impressed that those still here are very positive about Monaco and are working very hard to make Monaco a success. It has been a pleasure being here and working with these folks.
I think Bill Osborne has some really good ideas about making Monaco and the RV business better, but I am still very concerned about the commitment of Navistar to see this through. I look at how Workhorse handled the Brake issue recall and can only hope that Bill Osborne has enough clout within Navistar to see that kind of thing doesn't happen at Monaco. I should note that Osborne also now heads Workhorse. He knew last summer when he took over Monaco and Workhorse that he had to find a gas engine to replace the Chevy 8.1 or that Workhorse chassis business couldn't succeed. Obviously he failed to find that engine. I though maybe he could get Navistar to build a new gas engine, but apparently there just wasn't a big enough market to justify the expense.
