Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) announced today it
intends to close its Chatham, Ontario, truck manufacturing operation,
which has been idled since June 2009. The company also announced plans
to rationalize and better integrate its RV and chassis businesses.
The Chatham facility has been idled and employees have been on layoff
status for the past two years due to the company’s inability to reach a
collective bargaining agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers. As a
result, Chatham production has already been absorbed by other Navistar
truck plants.
"From a capacity standpoint, we are well positioned to meet demand
expected in the last half of 2011 and further increases in 2012,” said
Dee Kapur, president, Navistar Truck Group. "We’re seeing tremendous
benefit from our flexible manufacturing strategy, which allows us to
build more trucks—and a wider variety of them—at various plants.”
Navistar also announced plans to significantly scale back operations at
its Monaco headquarters and motor coach manufacturing plant in Coburg,
Ore., which will impact approximately 450 people. All motor coach
production will be consolidated at Monaco’s Wakarusa, Ind.,
manufacturing facility, and certain Monaco headquarters functions will
be consolidated at Navistar’s new corporate campus in Lisle, Ill. The
company plans to continue producing towables and retain certain finance
and information systems operations in Oregon, as well as maintain a RV
service center there.
The company’s Workhorse Custom Chassis subsidiary plans to close its
Union City, Ind., chassis plant, impacting about 225 employees. These
operations will be consolidated into other existing Navistar facilities
for greater efficiency and productivity.
Meanwhile, combining all motor coach production in Wakarusa will add
about 400 jobs at that facility.
"We understand the impact these decisions have on our employees,” Kapur
said. "We will treat people with respect and provide support to help
them with their transitions.”
The planned restructuring and asset impairment activities related to the
Chatham closure is expected to result in charges of $100 million to $130
million, of which the majority is related to pension and retiree
healthcare costs. The actions related to the Monaco/Workhorse
consolidation may result in charges of approximately $100 million, which
are predominantly related to expected asset impairments. Most of the
restructuring charges are expected to occur in the third and fourth
quarters 2011, with the remainder taking place in 2012. The company
expects ongoing savings of $20 million to $30 million annually once all
of the actions are implemented.
About Navistar
Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) is a holding company
whose subsidiaries and affiliates produce International® brand
commercial and military trucks, MaxxForce® brand diesel engines, IC Bus™
brand school and commercial buses, Monaco RV brands of recreational
vehicles, and Workhorse® brand chassis for motor homes and step vans. It
also is a private-label designer and manufacturer of diesel engines for
the pickup truck, van and SUV markets. The company also provides truck
and diesel engine service parts. Another affiliate offers financing
services. Additional information is available at www.Navistar.com/newsroom.
Forward Looking Statements
Information provided and statements contained in this report that are
not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking
statements only speak as of the date of this report and the Company
assumes no obligation to update the information included in this report.
Such forward-looking statements include information concerning our
possible or assumed future results of operations, including any
anticipated charges that may be incurred or other efficiencies that may
be achieved as a result of the above closures. These statements often
include words such as "believe,” "expect,” "anticipate,” "intend,”
"plan,” "estimate,” or similar expressions. These statements are not
guarantees of performance or results and they involve risks,
uncertainties, and assumptions. For a further description of these
factors, see Item 1A, Risk Factors, of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended October 31, 2010, which was filed on December 21, 2010. Although
we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, there are many factors that could affect our actual
financial results or results of operations and could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements. All future written and oral forward-looking statements by us
or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their
entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to above.
Except for our ongoing obligations to disclose material information as
required by the federal securities laws, we do not have any obligations
or intention to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking
statements to reflect events or circumstances in the future or to
reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
