43 Haas Garage Doors Installed in Airstream® Manufacturing Facility
Due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions, sales of RVs, travel trailers and touring coaches skyrocketed in 2020. According to the report “Growth of Camping Amid COVID-19: A Fall 2020 Update,” 56 percent of leisure travelers view camping as the safest type of travel. That’s good news for manufacturers like Airstream®.
With consistent demand over the years, Airstream was already gearing up for more growth in 2019 before the coronavirus struck. That’s when they started adding a new facility to their manufacturing operations in Jackson Center, Ohio, where “silver bullet” campers are made. The new structure has 684,000 square feet of space. That’s the size of almost 12 football fields.
“This project was so large that we broke it into three phases,” says Mark P. Beckman, manufacturing engineering and facilities director for Airstream. “We have 43 exterior Haas garage doors and nine interior garage doors in this new facility.”
Need for Dependable Doors
This isn’t the first time Airstream has selected Haas Door products for a large project. Beckman estimates there are at least 30 other Haas garage doors throughout the 1.3 million square feet of the Airstream complex in Ohio. The massive operation includes 12 buildings sitting on about 150 acres of space.
“Moeller Door & Window originally introduced us to Haas garage doors,” says Beckman. “We have a strong relationship with Moeller and rely on them for both their product recommendations and their service.
“We use doors hard here at Airstream. We’ve had other garage doors in the past that had problems. We’ve never experienced those problems with Haas garage doors.
“Having a garage door go down for us is a major inconvenience at best; at worst it can actually shut down production. That’s why reliability is a big deal for us.”
Relying on Haas Door
The team at Moeller Door & Window values the relationship with Airstream. “We started the first phase of installation for this project in July of 2019,” says Pat Moeller, owner of Moeller Door & Window in St. Henry, Ohio.
According to Moeller, Airstream selected Commercial 712 model V-groove wood grain steel insulated garage doors from Haas Door for the plant addition along with a variety of all-glass CA320 garage doors. Airstream relied on the recommendation from Moeller Door & Window due to past successes and the durability of Haas Door products.
“They like the quality of the Commercial
712 garage door, the clean look and the thick 26-gauge galvanized steel skin on these doors,” says Moeller. “We’ve installed Haas Door products before and Airstream liked them a great deal. Based on that positive experience, they selected Haas Door products again.”
Looking Toward the Future
Even with the massive new facility open, it’s a possibility that Airstream will see the need to expand in the future. According to
Ipsos research from June of 2020, 46 million Americans plan to go RVing. In the study, 20 percent of U.S. respondents stated they are more interested in RVs as a recreational travel option in the aftermath of COVID-19. That’s the highest of any option of travel tested and an indication that sales of Airstream products will continue to grow.
“Demand has definitely escalated this year for Airstream products due to COVID-19,” says Beckman. “We are not planning any further additions at Airstream at the moment. But, if and when we do, we will once again use products from Haas Doors.”
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