Stoughton to add 700 trailer production plant staff

Stoughton Trailers plans to add 700 mostly production line staff in 2027 due to improved replacement demand, especially for dry van trailers, President and CEO Bob Wahlin said Nov. 9. The upcoming workforce expansion for Stoughton comes after the trailer manufacturer already added 450 team members in the second half of 2026, the company’s top executive said in an exclusive interview. Currently, the Stoughton, Wis.-based company has around 1,800 employees. Almost all the latest recruits and future head count additions will be shop floor personnel, Wahlin told Transport Topics. As the second quarter of 2026 progressed, Stoughton’s top executive said, the company’s backlog was around three to four months, but now it is around 6½ months. All the 2026 hires were brought in at the Stoughton, Evansville and Brodhead manufacturing plants in Wisconsin. In 2027, around 150 to 175 of the new hires will be brought in at the company’s Waco, Texas, facility. The Stoughton plant — the company’s largest — houses all the component manufacturing operations for the subassemblies of trailers and chassis. It also has production lines for the assembly of dry van and chassis products. Stoughton’s facility in Evansville builds refrigerated trailers and intermodal chassis. The Brodhead facility manufactures dry van semitrailers. The Waco site manufactures intermodal chassis. Image Stoughton Trailers President and CEO Bob Wahlin. (The Select Committee on the CCP via YouTube) Following the expansions, the company expects to have an annualized production capacity of 110,000 trailers and container chassis, Wahlin said. The company expects the 2027 hires to be put to work building dry…

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