Despite talk of a worker shortage and a March unemployment rate under two percent, the economic growth just continues in Elkhart County.
Grand Design RV provides a good example.
Grand Design is building four new manufacturing and support plants on its Middlebury campus. The company plans to add 700 new workers by the end of 2023, which would represent a 25 percent increase in its present workforce.
“The labor shortage is real, and there are multiple different industries that have a crunch on their labor force, and staffing is difficult, and the cost of labor has gone up,” Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson told 16 News Now. “But the market adjusts because goods are still in demand, and we adjust to that, and we keep going.”
Grand Design on Thursday held an expansion celebration at its new 300,000-square-foot facility off C.R. 17 in Elkhart. Ribbon cutting ceremonies there marked the completion of the project.
The company won’t build anything at the Elkhart facility, with the possible exception of customer loyalty. The building is a service center.
“We’re in the service business, we just happen to sell RV’s,” said Grand Design President and CEO Don Clark. “We’ve moved into this almost 300,000 square foot facility which about doubles the capacity of our service, parts, and warranty.”
Click here to read the full story from Mark Peterson at WNDU in South Bend, Ind.
Click here to read RV PRO’s first report of this news a couple days prior.