Athens Park Homes, LLC,
www.athensparkhomes.com is proud to announce the acquisition of
the assets and intellectual properties of Flat Creek Lodges, INC,
www.flatcreeklodges.comof Haleyville, Alabama.
Flat Creek Lodges is a park model
manufacturer that specializes in the manufacturing and sale of
floating cabins. Athens Park Homes is one of the fastest growing
park model and specialty product manufacturers in the United
States. APH controls over 300,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing area on
75 acres of land in Athens, Texas 70 miles southeast of Dallas.
All manufacturing from the Flat Creek Lodges
plant in Alabama will relocate to Athens, Texas. Mike Burleson
owner of Flat Creek Lodges will become a full time employee of
Athens Park Homes as Vice President of the Flo Lodge division.
Phil Surles President and Managing Partner
of Athens Park Homes stated, “We are pleased and excited to have
Mike Burleson join our growing company with his knowledge of the
market and potential of the ‘floating cabins’. This acquisition
further adds to our expanding product line in the recreation
industry that truly exemplifies Athens Park Homes trademark
“INNOVATIONS IN RECREATIONAL LIVING”.
Mike Burleson, President of
Flat Creek Lodges stated, “I am truly excited about joining the
Athens Park Homes team with their tremendous manufacturing
capabilities and facilities. I can now concentrate entirely on the
vast potential of the floating cabin market knowing that we have the
manufacturing capacity to produce the increasing demand for this
product.”
Couple Launches 'Park Model Living' Magazine Steve Bibler RV Business
Friday, April 27,
2007
Kaeth and Frank Gauthier launched 'Park Model Living'
magazine in March
As Peter “Frank” Gauthier traveled the country for five years
installing wireless Internet connections in RV parks, he became
intrigued by the growing number of park models he would see at these
facilities.
Gauthier, 59, fell in love with the idea of park model living and
spent a season living in one in an
Arizona
campground. He tried to learn more about them, but was perplexed by
the lack of information available on the Internet about park models.
From that sprang the idea for a new magazine, Park Model Living,
which debuted in March under the tutelage of Gauthier, publisher,
and his wife, Kaeth, editor in chief.
The 16-page inaugural issue featured profiles on manufacturers and
dealers, the first in a four-part series on Wi-Fi by Gauthier and a
column by William Garpow, executive director of the Recreation Park
Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA). Garpow will be a regular
contributor to the magazine.
The Gauthiers, who work out of their home in Fairlawn, Ohio,
an Akron
suburb, see their magazine as an opportunity for manufacturers,
dealers, suppliers, owners and potential owners to network. In
addition to the new publication, the Gauthiers operate a website (www.parkmodelliving.com)
that has been running since last year. They plan to add a page for
people to post information about opening their park models on a
time-share basis.
The Gauthiers printed 3,000 copies of their first issue but planned
a run of 10,000 for their April edition. The Gauthiers have
subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
“We’re getting a lot of subscribers from
Michigan,
Ohio,
Wisconsin and snowbirds
going south for the winter,” Kaeth Gauthier, 56, said. She is
discovering that many couples travel between two or three park
models and spend time in each of them.
In preparation for their enterprise, the Gauthiers attended the
National RV Trade Show in
Louisville
last November. “We met with manufacturers and heard from a lot of
people in the park model industry,” Kaeth Gauthier said. “They were
begging for something like this.”
They also met with Garpow and developed an informal partnership with
the RPTIA, coming away with a good startup database that they've
been building upon as they learn about additional builders and
dealers in the industry and campgrounds that offer park models.
“I want to be the best source out there for park models,” said Kaeth
Gauthier, whose background is in professional mediation. “You do a
Google search for ‘park model magazines’ and you get us. We’re it.
We’ve added every park model manufacturer and dealer we know of to
our website. They’re all getting free listings. I want the user to
be able to go to our site, click, say, Georgia and sit
back and see what’s there.”
You've
got to hand it to a couple who've decided to publish their own magazine: It
takes a lot of guts and hard work. And then, after a couple of months of hiring
out the printing, they decide to do the work in-house: They lease a huge digital
press and (lacking a sufficient elevator to bring it to the second floor press
room) move it into their building through a window.
