Trailer company builds plant

Abstract

From building horse-drawn wagons during pre-World War I days, Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., has evolved into one of the world's leading manufacturers of commercial, freight-hauling trailers. The company is in the process of joining Paragould's industrial community with a 245,000-square-feet plant currently under construction on a 55-acre site in the Greene County city's industrial park. The plant will eventually employ up to 250 workers when it reaches its peak of production about 1998, said David Neighbors, manager of UT's Paragould plant. (excerpt)

From building horse-drawn wagons during pre-World War I days, Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., has evolved into one of the world's leading manufacturers of commercial, freight-hauling trailers.

The company is in the process of joining Paragould's industrial community with a 245,000-square-feet plant currently under construction on a 55-acre site in the Greene County city's industrial park.

The plant will eventually employ up to 250 workers when it reaches its peak of production about 1998, said David Neighbors, manager of UT's Paragould plant.

"We are planning a very planned, controlled build-up of our workforce. We hope to begin production in August, depending upon the cooperation the weather gives our building contractor," said Neighbors.

Neighbors said the Paragould plant will be UT's fifth manufacturing facility. The firm is headquartered in Industry, Calif., near Los Angeles.

The other plants are located at Clearfield, Utah, and Marion, Va., which both manufacture refrigerated, temperature controlled-vans for transporting food items; Enterprise, Ala., which builds steel flatbed trailers, and a product known as "tautliner," which is a hybrid between a van and a flatbed with curtain sides; and the plant in Industry, which manufactures dry van, box-type trailers.

The Paragould plant will also manufacture the dry van, box-type trailers. "Those are the trailers you see going down the road, like the Wal-Mart trailers," said Neighbors.

Neighbors said the Paragould plant has a goal of building 6,000 units per year, or 24 trailers each working day.

"Our goal is to manufacture those in just one shift, but we'll just have to wait and see," he said.

Neighbors said the company's earliest roots can be traced to the Bennett family of Phoenix, Ariz.

"The company was founded by the Bennett brothers in 1914. They had sold a lumber business in Phoenix and moved to Los Angeles and bought a wagon company," said Neighbors.

In addition to the wagons, the young company soon began manufacturing trailers to be pulled by earliest mechanized trucks.

Most of the earliest trailers were sold to California's early utility companies, hence the name Utility Trailer, said Neighbors.

UT primarily served the western United States until the 1960s when the company began expanding sales eastward.

"We have been steadily expanding eastward. Now most of our production facilities are going to be east of the Rocky Mountains," said Neighbors.

The third and fourth generations of the Bennett family now operate the company, said Neighbors.

Neighbors said Paragould was selected as the site of UT's fifth plant, primarily because of the city's proximity to Memphis, and, too, because of the city and state's recruitment efforts.

"There were several parameters that had to be met in the search for a community. We needed to be fairly close to a major distribution center. Memphis fits that bill," said Neighbors.

After Memphis was selected, a circle was drawn around the city to establish a 100-mile radius. Paragould is located on the outside edge of that circle.

"We looked at communities in three states. We liked what we saw in Paragould and decided to locate in Northeast Arkansas," said Neighbors.

UT distributes its trailers through an international dealer network with dealers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Neighbors said there is a good possibility that some of UT's suppliers may locate manufacturing facilities in Paragould.

"We are hiring a very limited number of people right now. We are building some of the tooling and fixturing that will ultimately be installed in the plant," said Neighbors.

Neighbors said he helped to build and start the plant in Enterprise and there are a lot of similarities between that city and Paragould.

"They are about the same population and the people are extraordinarily friendly," said Neighbors.