The Dorsey Trailer plant in Elba, AL is up and running again, four months after it was sold in bankruptcy court. New plant owner Chriss Street, president of Fruehauf Trailer Corp. and chairman of Corona del Mar, CA-based Street Asset Management, said the plant will make refrigeration trailers for a client in Mexico.
“We're looking to reassert Dorsey as the dominant player in the trailer industry,” said Street, who added the company will keep the Dorsey name. Street paid $4.6 million for the assets, and said he will invest $2 million for plant improvements.
The plant closed up in November 2000, when Atlanta-based Dorsey suspended operations at three of its plants. The company filed for bankruptcy the following month, and the assets were sold to Street in March.
Street said the Elba plant will employ 75 workers initially and should land close to $11-million in orders over the rest of this year. He hopes to have it bringing in $200 million in orders a year, about the same before it closed amid Dorsey's financial troubles.
Street bought Fruehauf Trailer out of bankruptcy in 1997.