Leading RV Manufacturer Forest River Will Close California Plants

Citing the high cost of doing business in the state, the company will lay off 400 workers before Christmas.

Forest River, Inc., one of the nation’s top makers of recreational vehicles, announced the closure of its California-based manufacturing facilities on Oct. 15.

More than 400 workers will lose their jobs about 13 days before Christmas at the company’s Hemet and Rialto locations, both less than 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

“The decision to close the California manufacturing operations stems from the rising cost of doing business in the state,” the company wrote in a press release Wednesday published by RV Business, an industry news site.

The company filed its mandatory 60-day notice with California on Wednesday.

Forest River, a Berkshire Hathaway company, plans to permanently close two plants in Southern California. According to the notice, 239 workers in Hemet and 176 in Rialto will be let go on Dec. 13.

The company is “working closely with the impacted employees to provide support during the transition,” according to its press statement.

The company started in 1996 and has become one of North America’s leading manufacturers of RVs, cargo trailers, pontoon boats, buses, vans, and commercial trucks.

“Forest River has a strong commitment to the California retail market, and although our manufacturing presence is ending, our dedication to our dealers and customers is unwavering,” said Doug Gaeddert, president of the company’s RV division, in a statement Wednesday.

Although manufacturing will end at the Hemet location, the company plans to convert it into a dedicated Forest River service center.

“The opening of this new service center ensures that our California RV owners and dealers will have local access to our best-in-class service network,” Gaeddert said.

The service center will be open to Forest River products made all over the nation.

The manufacturing currently done in California will be relocated to the company’s Indiana locations, where Forest River was founded and has its headquarters.

Forest River will still operate more than 100 plants in Indiana, Oregon, and Georgia.

The company’s departure from California makes it the latest major company to leave the state.

Phillips 66 announced on Oct. 16 its decision to close an oil refinery near the Port of Los Angeles, displacing 600 employees.

In August, Chevron Corporation announced plans to move its headquarters to Texas, citing differences with California on energy policy and regulation.

Earlier this year, Neutrogena closed its Los Angeles headquarters and moved operations to New Jersey.

Other well-known recent corporate departures include Oracle, Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, and Charles Schwab.

Elon Musk said in July he intended to move the headquarters of his San Francisco-based social media company X, and rocket company Space X, based in Hawthorne, to Texas, citing his opposition to a new state law enacted the day before.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in July signed a first-in-the-nation law that prohibits school districts from requiring parents to be notified when their children change gender identities or sexual orientations in schools.

California has been among the worst-performing states in the country in terms of job growth since January 2022, according to The Hoover Institution, a Stanford University public policy research center. The latest statistics show that nearly all jobs created in California are government jobs.

Between January 2022 and June 2024, California added about 156,000 jobs, with government jobs accounting for nearly 97 percent, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the institute reported in August.

“California’s private-sector job collapse is unprecedented, and with the state representing nearly 12 percent of the country’s population, it is a drag on the nation’s economy,” Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Lee Ohanian wrote in the Aug. 7 article.

Businesses are leaving the state because of its economic climate, which is ranked as the fifth worst in the U.S., according to Ohanian.

“While California has many natural advantages, its state and local economic policies have created a business climate that is no longer competitive with that of many other states,” Ohanian wrote.

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