KIT Manufacturing Co. history

The first public showing was at Gilmore Stadium in L.A. in February of 1946.

In January 1947 Kit moved to a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the harbor area of Long Beach.

By January of 1948, they had designed a larger trailer and the Kit Kamper line was shut down.

A second Caldwell plant, for RVs, was opened in 1964.

In fiscal 1968 (ending October 31, 1968), the last year before Kit became a public company, it earned net income of $688,000 on net sales of $22 million.

The company's long-term debt was $1.8 million in 1970.

Pocapalia, who assumed the position of chairman as well as president in 1971, retained about 30 percent of the stock.

Mini-motor homes, built on van truck chassis, were introduced in 1976.

The company soon turned the corner, however, and earned $1.6 million in fiscal 1978 on record revenues of $61.9 million.

In 1979 the company was producing mobile homes in single, double, and triple width, ranging in length from 36 to 70 feet and in width from 14 to 40 feet, with floor area from less than 1,000 to more than 2,300 square feet.

A Caldwell plant was converted from RVs to mobile homes, and in 1981 the company was operating facilities only in Caldwell and McPherson.

The culprit was the mobile-home business, which fell into deficit in fiscal 1982 and did not return to profitability until five years later.

In January 1983 Kit announced that the manufactured-housing product line was being overhauled, aimed at accommodating demand for units that were lower priced and constructed more like site-built homes.

Revenues declined each successive year through fiscal 1992, when they fell to $55.5 million.

Its deficit widened in fiscal 1993, despite a sales gain of 11 percent to 3,335 units.