Fleetwood Windows & Doors history

In 1977 the company incorporated in the state of Delaware, keeping the same name.

In 1980 Fleetwood shut down nine of its production factories: three travel trailer plants, three motor home facilities, and three manufactured housing plants.

Two of the company’s subsidiaries pleaded guilty to six counts of filing false certifications in 1987, resulting in approximately $650,000 in fines and civil settlements.

The four-year-old dispute came to a head in February 1988, resulting in a United States Justice Department complaint filed against Fleetwood in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking civil penalties in excess of $20 million.

The Coleman product line ranged in retail price from $2,000 to $10,000, and in 1989 it accounted for more than 30% of the folding trailer market.

By 1990 the company operated 12 travel trailer plants in the United States and Canada.

In September 1992 Fleetwood acquired an 80 percent interest in Niesmann & Bischoff, a Koblenz, Germany-based manufacturer of luxury-priced ($150,000 to $300,000) motor homes under the brands Clou Liner and Clou Trend.

In May 1996 Fleet-wood gave up on its European adventure, selling its stake in Niesmann & Bischoff and taking a $28 million charge for fiscal 1996 in the process.

The largest deal was the purchase of Houston-based HomeUSA, Inc., in 1998 for approximately $162 million.

Revenues climbed steadily, reaching $3.71 billion by the fiscal year ending in April 2000.

After three consecutive years of growth, sales in 2001 fell to $2.5 billion compared to nearly $3.8 billion the previous year.

Kurowski, Jeff. "New Fleetwood Management Faces Job of Fixing a Giant." RV Business, January 2002.

By August 2005 he had sold substantially all of the firm's manufactured housing retail operations and its entire loan portfolio to affiliates of Clayton Homes, Inc.