Godwin's purchase of R/S Truck Body could be final Aug. 15

Aug 1, 2002 12:00 PM

Godwin Mfg Co Inc, of Dunn, North Carolina, has purchased R/S Truck Body Inc, of Allen, Kentucky, and expects final approval of the deal Aug. 15, according to founder and CEO Pat Godwin Sr.

“It’s just something I wanted to do,” Godwin said. “It’s part of the niche market. I feel like they’re No. 1 name recognition. I feel like in our niche market, I’m No. 1 name recognition. Both companies have similarities. We also have products that each one of us buys that now each one of us makes. So we’ll be trading within the two families. It’s just going to make us stronger.”

The company started in 1966 as Godwin Welding Service and 13 years later became Godwin Mfg Co Inc, with a product line including all types of trailers, flatbeds, hoists, frame work, a boom truck for putting up signs, portable welding, and in-house repairs. By the mid ’80s, it was manufacturing flat beds, contractor beds, many models of hoists, rollback carriers, roll-off units, and doing booming municipal contract business. In the early ’90s, it was operating on 156 acres in a total of 345,000 sq ft under roof, with 175 employees.

Godwin says his company is the East Coast’s largest truck equipment manufacturer.

R/S Truck Body is known primarily for aluminum dump bodies and trailers. Godwin says it is “in the elite group of dump bodies.”

Godwin says he plans to expand the company’s focus on snow-moving equipment in the municipal market by establishing a distribution plant in Kentucky that will be supported by the operations in Dunn, and by producing new equipment.

“We’ll be a one-stop shop,” he says. “We’ll furnish it all.”