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Wabash National Announces Consolidation of Its Platform Manufacturing Facilities

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  Published in House and Home on Tuesday, November 3rd 2009 at 6:26 GMT by Market Wire
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LAFAYETTE, IN--(Marketwire - November 3, 2009) - Wabash National Corporation (NYSE: [ WNC ]) today announced that it's wholly owned subsidiary, Transcraft ® Corporation, a manufacturer of flatbed, drop deck, dump trailers and truck bodies, has agreed on the terms of a sale of its Anna, Illinois production facility and will consolidate its operations into its Cadiz, Kentucky facility. Platform production at the Anna facility will cease sometime in the first half of 2010, at which time the new production lines at the Cadiz production facility will be fully operational.

"These types of decisions are always difficult to make, especially when it affects associates, but due to the current economic climate we are faced with the need to further right size our operating footprint and reduce our cost structure. We expect this to be a seamless transition in production due to utilization of excess manufacturing equipment, which should have no impact to our customers," said Terry Campbell, General Manager of Transcraft Corporation.

Transcraft plans to sell the facility to a prominent, local business owner, Rusty Flamm. Mr. Flamm is the owner of Rusty's Home Center, a lumberyard and home center business with locations in Anna and Vienna, Illinois. Mr. Flamm originally approached Transcraft to purchase an unused portion of property in Anna. After this initial inquiry, Transcraft offered to sell the entire facility to Mr. Flamm in conjunction with Transcraft's plan to consolidate its production facilities.

"My current plans are to expand my business and hopefully bring new business to this area," said Flamm.

Transcraft will consolidate production of all product lines from two production facilities to one in Cadiz, Kentucky which will also serve as its corporate headquarters. The Cadiz manufacturing plant is a modern, purpose-built facility that currently produces all of Transcraft's aluminum platform and dump product lines.

"This will complete the consolidation process of the Company's platform business, which began in October 2007 with the closure of the Mt. Sterling, Kentucky plant. Similar to our Lafayette Transformation Project completed earlier this year, this consolidation initiative continues the optimization of our production facilities and overhead cost structure that we have been focused on throughout the current economic climate," said Wabash National President and Chief Executive Officer Dick Giromini.

About Wabash National

Headquartered in Lafayette, Ind., Wabash National® Corporation (NYSE: [ WNC ]) is one of the leading manufacturers of semi trailers in North America. Established in 1985, the company specializes in the design and production of dry freight vans, refrigerated vans, flatbed trailers, drop deck trailers, dump trailers, truck bodies and intermodal equipment. Its innovative core products are sold under the DuraPlate®, ArcticLite®, FreightPro™ Eagle® and Benson™ brand names. The company operates two wholly owned subsidiaries; Transcraft ® Corporation, a manufacturer of flatbed, drop deck, dump trailers and truck bodies; and Wabash National Trailer Centers, trailer service centers and retail distributors of new and used trailers and aftermarket parts throughout the U.S.

About Transcraft

Transcraft ® Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wabash National ® Corporation, is one of the leading manufacturers of platform trailers in North America. Established in 1962, Transcraft offers a wide range of platform and dump trailer models to meet the needs of the commercial vehicle and construction industries. Transcraft manufactures its products in Cadiz, Kentucky.