Workhorse Custom Chassis
A Miracle Unfolding

By Don Magary, editor

Workhorse Custom Chassis CEO Andrew Taitz (r) visits with Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon at the new Workhorse Custom Chassis Plant in Union City, IN.

What Workhorse Custom Chassis has accomplished in a very short time is remarkable. In a nutshell they have created a company, bought the P-chassis motorhome and commercial truck manufacturing division of General Motors (GM); built a brand new manufacturing plant in the dead of winter in Union City, Indiana; moved the entire production line from Detroit to the new plant; hired a staff of 300 managers and production workers and have produced in excess of 2,000 chassis for the RV and other industries. As a matter of fact, it is more than remarkable, it's almost miraculous.

Those responsible for this miracle include Andrew Taitz, chairman, and CEO of Work-horse Custom Chassis (WCC), Bob Atkins, chief operating officer, and a couple hundred dedicated people, including the GM transition team.

But let's step back a year in time. It's July 1998. Atkins, a 30-year veteran with GM, was plant manager at GM's Detroit assembly plant where the motor-home and commercial truck P-chassis were being manufactured.

It was quite a shock when GM announced to employees and key stakeholders that it would discontinue the manufacture of its motorhome and commercial chassis products. GM had signed a letter of intent with Taitz to sell all related P-chassis assets. GM said it planned to cease chassis production at its Detroit assembly plant by the end of 1998.

One of the things that was a complicating factor was that the contract closing between GM and WCC took a lot longer than either party thought. GM had already made internal decisions that they had to stop business for a number of reasons by the end of the year, and clearly from a business perspective, WCC needed to make sure the market didn't go unserviced for any length of time for fear of losing marketshare.

In an interview at the WCC plant in Union City, Atkins told RV News, "When GM made the announcement there were a lot of unanswered issues."

What's going to happen to me? That was among the questions being asked of Atkins by both the salaried and hourly work force. Atkins said, "Another thing, of course, is customers asking, 'Where are we going to get chassis?' 'Can I get enough?' There were a lot of serious issues not the least of which was Mr. Taitz's announcement in November that he would have product by March." continued