Winnebago announces layoffs, including 20 in Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Winnebago Industries announced this week that it laid off 196 employees effective Tuesday, May 13, including 20 employees at the Charles City Winnebago Hardwoods Facility.

The listing was made on the Iowa Workforce Development website for the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (Warn) Act, where employers with 100 or more fulltime employees must give notice of plant closings or significant layoffs.

The Winnebago report says the layoffs will be:

• 128 employees in Forest City.
• 30 employees in Lake Mills.
• 20 employees in Charles City.
• 18 employees in Waverly.

The Des Moines Register reported that a statement from Winnebago said the move resulted from “cyclical shifts in the RV industry including decreased customer demand, elevated inventory levels, and other business considerations.”

Winnebago had closed the smaller of its two manufacturing facilities in Charles City in July 2024, laying off 36 workers who were making small van-based recreational vehicles.

At that time, a spokesperson for Winnebago told the Press said the company was shifting its Class B recreational vehicle product production from Charles City to Lake Mills, to create a “manufacturing center of excellence” for Class B products.

The latest reports were that between 80 and 100 people were employed in the remaining Charles City Hardwoods Facility, a 100,000-square-foot plant next to the Charles City Assembly facility that closed last year.

Curbtender, a Cedar Falls-based manufacturer of refuse collection vehicles, street sweepers and similar vehicles, purchased the closed former Winnebago site in December 2024 to be the primary location for production of front-loader trash collection vehicles.