Ember RV Expands with Plans to Amp Up Production
Production is expected to begin mid-October 2021 in a new 90,000-square-foot facility.
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With a move into an expanded facility that will act as their new headquarters, Ember RV expects to increase production capability as they launch into the lightweight travel trailer market. The company expects to move mid-October from their current 60,000-square-foot location to a 90,000-square-foot, $4 million facility that includes 3,000 square feet of office space.
The company will initially focus on the lightweight travel trailer market.
“It is a brand-new building,” said Ashley Bontrager Lehman, Ember president and CEO. “It was a spec building that the contractor was just putting up and I got in with them earlier this year. It was early enough in the build process that I was able to request some changes to make it more suitable to building RVs.”
Ember’s current location will house the company’s lamination department and welding shop.
The company was formed earlier this year. Lehman is the grandaughter of Jayco founders Lloyd and Bertha Bontrager, and she is joined by three other founding partners: former Jayco Operations Manager Steve Delagrange, former Jayco Senior Director of Product Management Chris Barth, and Ernie Miller.
“My grandparents at that time wanted to provide a family-friendly unit that got families out in nature spending time together,” Lehman said. “I had a strong desire to do something similar to that idea… let’s provide more of an entry-level unit for families to go out and enjoy together.”
“There are some pretty great things that we can say about that entry-level buyer that we saw was missing in the marketplace,” said Chris Barth, vice president and chief operating officer. “Entry-level buyers are typically just looked at as a price-point shopper, and Ashley and I are both in agreement that we want to sell people in a value-proposition kind of way. Price is only an issue in the absence of value…”
The lightweight trailer is only the first of what will be more models to come, Barth said.
