The transportation, logistics and distribution equipment provider Wabash has inked a deal to ensure it has a steady supply of wood flooring, which is an essential component of the trucking trailers it produces.
The announcement comes as the company ramps up production in a new dry van trailer manufacturing facility it unveiled two months ago in Lafayette, Indiana. When it hits full production levels in 2024, the facility will roll out 10,000 units annually, marking a 23% increase in Wabash's capacity. Since each trailer needs some 320 square feet of laminated flooring, the company also needed to source extra wood.
Indiana-based Wabash will obtain that additional material from Rockland Flooring, a Minnesota firm that has been a Wabash supplier for 15 years. With five plants in the United States and Canada, Rockland Flooring’s domestic location helps ensure supply of wood flooring, which is a historically constrained material in the trailer industry, the firm said.
“We’re pleased to expand on our long-standing relationship with Rockland Flooring by executing our first long-term agreement for wood flooring for dry van trailers,” said Richard Mansilla, vice president of global procurement at Wabash. “As our new dry van trailer manufacturing facility reaches full capacity in 2024, poised to yield an additional 10,000 units annually, this agreement will allow us to secure wood flooring above what we can produce out of Wabash’s wood flooring production facility in Harrison, Arkansas.”
According to Wabash, the long-term wood flooring supply deal follows three other multi-year agreements it has signed since 2021. Wabash says those contracts will likewise position it to meet customers’ needs by ensuring a reliable buyer of its trailers in J.B. Hunt, supplies of steel components from Ryerson, and supplies of aluminum parts from Hydro.
Editor's note: This article was revised on October 18 to include additional trailer production details from Wabash.
