Winnebago Industries profits for fiscal year drop, upcoming layoffs show on state workforce site

FOREST CITY — Winnebago Industries is planning to lay off over 30 employees at their Forest City plant after a drop in the company’s quarterly and yearly profits.

Fourth quarter gross profit for the outdoor lifestyle products manufacturer was $94.2 million, a decrease of just over 26% year over year, while gross profit for the fiscal year was $433.5 million, a decrease of 26% compared to Fiscal Year 2023.

Iowa Workforce Development’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification website shows that Winnebago plans to layoff as many as 33 employees from the Forest City plant on November 22nd.

Winnebago CEO Michael Happe says while the company has had a number of tough quarters recently, he anticipates better things to come in calendar year 2025. “While the retail environment remains challenging in the short term, we anticipate gradual market improvement over the next 12 to 15 months. We would expect this to occur more materially as we move into the second quarter of calendar 2025, our third fiscal quarter, factoring in the projected easing of interest rates and decreased inventory levels in the motorhome RV category.”

Happe says the motorhome portion of the industry remains in destocking mode with wholesale shipments down 24% year over year.  “Within our universe of RV dealers, inventory turns were down very slightly in the 4th quarter compared with the year earlier period. Inventory for Winnebago Industries was down 4.5% from the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2023, which underscores our focus on continuing to aggressively manage production amid what remains a challenging macroeconomic environment.”

The Forest City layoffs come after the announcement by Winnebago in July that they were closing their Charles City plant and moving those operations to Lake Mills, impacting 36 workers there.