NorthCentralPA reports the Wall Street Journal says the Fleetwood Homes factory in Nampa, Idaho has increased production 25 percent since last fall to keep up with demand in the North Dakota oilfields for manufactured homes. Upon adding 40 employees, factory manager Jeff Chrisman says without this new demand he would be giving employees furloughs instead of overtime. “We’ve been able to bring back people that we hated losing a couple of years ago,” he says. The extra-insulated “Dakota” model has linoleum floors and rugged interiors made by this subsidiary of Cavco for oilfield workers who often spend days slogging in mud. MHProNews.com has learned it takes ten days to construct each home, and two homes are completed each day. The homes are then shipped 1000 miles east to ND’s Bakken oil field. Energy production is helping drive the economy, with U.S. private-equity energy deals having tripled 2010 to 2011, to $24.8 billion.
(Photo credit: Chris Butler/Idaho Statesman—Dolores Laredo at Fleetwood plant)
