Dive Brief:
- Wabash National will idle two Midwest manufacturing plants this spring as part of a restructuring aimed at reducing costs amid continued softness in the freight market, executives announced during its Q4 earnings call on Feb. 4.
- About 270 employees will be laid off in Goshen, Indiana, and Little Falls, Minnesota, according to the states’ respective Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notices and other news media reports.
- The company expects to incur $16 million in upfront charges, but anticipates annual savings of roughly $10 million once the plants are idled.
Dive Insight:
Wabash’s suspension of production at two plants comes after a difficult Q4. The company announced a $59.9 million operating loss during the period, a significant downturn from its operating income of $3.5 million in Q4 2024.
“Fleets remain cautious. Capital spending decisions continue to be highly managed. And as a result, our fourth quarter performance came in below expectations,” said Brent Yeagy, president and CEO of Wabash, during the earnings call.
Lower-than-expected truck body production volumes contributed to a negative 1.1% gross margin in the quarter, prompting the company to adjust production capacity to better align with current demand, executives said. Yeagy noted that the restructuring includes repositioning Wabash’s refrigerated truck body business for longer-term growth.
“It's a move to make us stronger going forward,” he said. “There's nothing that takes away our ability to serve the market as we move into what we believe will be a better market in 2027.”
In Q4, Wabash shipped about 5,901 trailers and 1,343 truck bodies, executives noted during the call. Citing ongoing market uncertainty, the company declined to issue full-year 2026 guidance and instead provided limited Q1 expectations, which executives said would likely represent the weakest period of the year.
“While we continue to assess the shape and timing of a recovery, we remain confident that 2026 will represent an improvement from 2025,” CFO Patrick Keslin said during the earnings call.
