Attendees of the celebration included Wayne’s Mayor Cale Geise, Schuster Company President Steve Schuster and Jim Hawk Truck Trailers President Jim Hawk III. Great Dane’s President Dean Engelage, along with representatives from the Wayne facility and the company’s corporate offices in Chicago and Savannah, Ga., were also in attendance.
The 125,000th trailer to come off the line at the Wayne plant was a new Everest Single-Temp reefer designed exclusively for Schuster Company of Le Mars, Iowa, a customer of Great Dane’s since 1988.
“We’re extremely proud to reach this historic milestone here in Wayne,” says Lee Byers, plant manager. “It’s a clear testament to the high quality of the product we produce and to the spirit of the hundreds of hard-working craftsmen who build these best-in-class trailers for our valued customers.”
The Wayne manufacturing facility produces Great Dane’s premier Everest Single-Temp refrigerated trailers, which are primarily used for long-haul truckload operations. This 257,000-sq.-ft., 83-acre facility began operations in 1986 with two production lines and has since undergone five building additions.
Great Dane says its Wayne plant employs nearly 700 people and builds 5,000 trailers per year for some of the nation’s largest fleets, including Schuster, Walmart, IWX, JFI, Marten Transport, Decker, Freymiller, Van Wyk, Interide, California Overland, Associated Wholesale Grocers, Sargento and more.
