Wabash National: why "trailer" is not part of its name.

AuthorMayer, Kathy
PositionREGIONAL REPORT NORTH CENTRAL

SINCE 1985, SEMIS zooming along America's highways have been pulling Wabash National Corp. (NYSE: WNC) trailers made in Lafayette, and since 1995 they've included the revolutionary DuraPlate dry van. Now, the company is taking that product's technology beyond semitrailers for uses both on and off highways.

Vinyl core, steel-sided. Made of a lightweight, composite panel of high-density vinyl core with high-strength steel bonded to each side, DuraPlate trailers deliver greater mobility and strength than conventional models.

So why limit its use to semis, the Indiana company is asking this year as it takes the product on new routes, using the panels in utility trucks, portable storage units, industrial enclosures, rail products and, potentially, military uses.

"We found that DuraPlate has a whole lot of legs, and we were only looking at it from a trailer standpoint," says Jamie Scarcelli, vice president and general manager of DuraPlate Products at Wabash National.

$80 million by 2012. Launched in January, the DuraPlate Products Group expects to land $15 million to $20 million in revenues this year, $35 million next year, and $80 million by 2012.

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About 100 of the company's 2,300 Lafayette employees are already dedicated to the venture, backed by a $50 million DuraPlate facility, part of 1.5 million square feet of facility space in Lafayette.

"We spent eight months working on our NextSteps strategic plan, looking at how to grow, expand and diversify the company," Scarcelli says. "DuraPlate holds a lot of potential for a whole bunch of things."

Dedicating a core group to the line is key to success, he believes. "We've put a focused business unit around this, a lot like a startup within a larger...

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