It has been a memorable 2011 for Stoughton Trailers as a company and for the Don Wahlin family in particular.
In March of this year, the company put the trailer industry's recession into the past, reopening the last of the plants that had been shuttered when the downturn that was especially severe for companies that manufactured dry-freight vans. But the reopening of the Evansville, Wisconsin, plant signified the return of another manufacturing segment that the company had enjoyed success — production of domestic containers and container chassis.
But there were other milestones this year as well, including the company's 50th anniversary.
The company officially began in April 1961 when Don Wahlin, then a recent college graduate, bought the assets of his former employer — Stoughton Cab & Body. Wahlin initially called the company Stoughton Truck Body.
In the mid-1960s, the company got a slight name change — Stoughton Body Inc — along with a new addition to its product line — truck trailers. Not surprisingly, the truck body manufacturer's first trailer was for city delivery. Flatbed trailers followed in 1964. Popularity of vans and platforms product grew sharply, leading to another change in the company name. The company became Stoughton Trailers in 1973.
Today the company builds a wide range of trailers, containers, and container chassis in multiple plants in central Wisconsin. The company owns approximately 80 acres and has a total of more than a million square feet under roof.
