Laid off from Forest River.

What Forest River layoffs have meant for employees

Every closing Forest River announced in 2024 came with word that the plant's work would carry on somewhere else. No Boundaries production was headed for the company's Ibex plants in Ligonier, RV PRO reported. The brands built in Hemet and Rialto were bound for Indiana, per RVBusiness, and the Ocilla cargo trailers for Texas and Indiana, according to Forest River's October 31 release. Each plan kept the brand going. The people who built it were another matter, and the No Boundaries notice lists who a closing reaches, from 13 workers in final finish and eight each in metal and the cabinet shop millroom to seven in shelling and welding and two in supervision. In Indiana, each of the company's notices ruled out bumping rights, so years spent on one line gave a worker no claim to a spot on another.

Forest River's February 2024 notice and December 2024 notice to Indiana gave different answers on COBRA, so the terms one plant's workers got don't settle another plant's. If you're leaving Forest River, it's worth asking HR to put your final pay, any unused vacation and the date your health coverage ends in writing. If you had coverage through a company plan, our page on how COBRA works covers what to ask about keeping it. A written answer is something you can point back to later if a final check comes up short.

For the 2024 cargo-plant layoffs, one longtime worker told the Elkhart Truth it was "a punch in the gut" to get a letter around the end of October, while the notice Forest River filed with Indiana is dated December 13. In July 2026, the letter Forest River sent Indiana said every affected Bristol worker had already been given notice. If a letter from the company about a layoff reaches you, it's worth keeping it with the date it arrived.

Berkshire Hathaway has owned Forest River since 2005, Patch noted, and Berkshire's 2024 annual report is where Forest River's sales results appear. It shows revenue falling hard in 2023, a drop Berkshire tied in part to rising interest rates and inflation, and growing again in 2024 on more units sold, a gain that included businesses Forest River had bought. Berkshire put the 2023 earnings drop mainly down to lower sales volumes. So the 2024 closings were announced in a year Forest River's revenue grew. Being bought by Forest River hasn't secured a plant, either; Salina's ElDorado bus plant was set to close about a year after the purchase, KSAL reported. Forest River's July 2026 notice for the Bristol plant arrived in a softer market, with wholesale RV shipments down 14.2% through August 2026 by RV Industry Association figures, RVBusiness reported. Towable RVs, led by travel trailers, were down 16.9% in August alone. If you're hoping to move to another RV plant, it's worth asking how steady its production schedule has been this year before you count on full hours.

Every Forest River notice in our WARN tracker since 2024 comes from Indiana, Georgia or California, which is where its recent closings landed. If you lost a job at one of the Indiana plants, our pages on Indiana unemployment benefits and Indiana layoffs cover filing a claim and the state's notice list, and California's benefits page and Georgia's benefits page do the same for the 2024 closings there. When Forest River announced the Goshen closing, it said it would work with Indiana's Rapid Response Program to lessen the impact on employees, so if your plant is closing, it's worth asking HR whether the state's Rapid Response team is involved.

A sourced history of Forest River layoffs

• July 2026, Plant 63 closing in Bristol, Indiana

  Forest River's letter to the state set September 17 to shut all of Plant 63 on Bloomingdale Drive and end 105 jobs. It said every affected worker had been told, none belonged to a union, and no bumping rights existed.

• October 2024, cargo trailer consolidation in Georgia and Indiana

  Forest River said it would close its Ocilla, Georgia cargo trailer plant, about 110 jobs, and merge four Elkhart County cargo plants into two, per its October 31 release. The Indiana notice put 160 layoffs at December 31, answering no on separation benefits and COBRA.

• October 2024, California plant closings in Hemet and Rialto

  Forest River said it would end its California manufacturing, citing the state's rising cost of doing business, RVBusiness reported. Notices to the state listed 239 jobs in Hemet and 176 in Rialto, Patch found.

• February 2024, No Boundaries Plant 77 closing in Goshen

  Forest River said it would move No Boundaries production into its Ibex plants in Ligonier and wind down the Goshen plant around April 19, RV PRO reported. The state notice listed 83 jobs, with COBRA but no separation benefits.

• March 2021, ElDorado bus plant closing in Salina, Kansas

  Forest River filed a Kansas notice covering 146 jobs at the ElDorado bus plant it had bought the previous May, planning to close it between May 10 and May 24 and citing a COVID-19 drop in business, KSAL reported.

What to do if you're laid off from Forest River

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Forest River's biggest hubs: Indiana, California, Georgia, Kansas. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Forest River's hub states run: Indiana, California, Georgia, Kansas, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.