For immediate release Tuesday, April 19, 2005
ALL AMERICAN HOMES GIVES TOP SUPPLIER AWARD
TO MERILLAT INDUSTRIES

Shelly Bradbury (left), All American Homes' Vice President, presents Merillat Industries' Tom Grothe with an engraved clock. All American recently recognized Merillat as its “Top Supplier.” Merillat provides custom cabinets to the homebuilding industry.

Decatur, Ind.--As a top producer of systems-built homes, the people at All American Homes recognize the importance of excellent cabinetry. That's why they chose Merillat Industries for their first-ever "Top Supplier" award.

"All American Homes is a custom builder," said Shelly Bradbury, Vice President of All American Homes, "and Merillat has the custom cabinets our buyers want."

Though All American Homes builds the home's structure, numerous suppliers provide everything from faucets to windowpanes. The company ranked its suppliers in nine areas, including product selection, quality, availability, design assistance, customer delivery and order completeness. Merillat Industries took first place.

All American homes are available in spacious ranch, Cape Cod and two-story designs in hundreds of floor plans, and Merillat provides the cabinetry to fit them all. "It's a thrill to work with the professionals at All American Homes," said Tom Grothe, Merillat's Strategic Account Manager. "We're proud to exclusively provide cabinetry for their homes."

Merillat, based in Adrian, Mich., began custom-fabricating kitchen cabinets in 1946. Its designers travel the world in search of the latest trends and styles. Today, cabinets can make or break a home sale, having moved beyond being the centerpieces for kitchens. Cabinets personalize space in home offices and upscale entertainment centers, and they transform ordinary laundry rooms into pleasant workstations.

While buyers see choices, builders must look at the whole picture. "Merillat has a vast product selection, which is something our builders really want," Bradbury said. "There are 90 different door style and wood variety choices available to our builders, compared to eight combinations from a previous supplier. We can get any of these cabinets with the same delivery lead time."

With 350 builders in 35 states, and state-of-the-art facilities in seven states, All American Homes has become one of the nation's largest builders of systems-built homes. Highly engineered and built with rigorous precision, a systems-built home by All American Homes offers homeowners higher quality and shorter construction time. By building off-site in a climate-controlled environment, an All American home can be built and delivered in as little as 8 to 12 weeks, a significant cycle time improvement over typical site-built homes.

Off-site construction also means the home must be built strong enough to withstand over-the-road delivery. That great strength was made evident last year in hurricane-besieged Florida, where All American homes throughout the storm-ravaged state reportedly suffered no structural damage, losing little more than a few shingles and an occasional piece of siding.

After the home's components are completed in the All American Homes' facility, they're shipped by transporter to the building site and then lifted by crane onto its foundation. Depending on the size of the house, most are weather-tight in only one or two days.

Bradbury said Merillat has competitive pricing and the company is focused on both customer service and satisfaction. "When you look at customer polls and surveys, Merillat is always near the top," she said.

Grothe said Merillat appreciates All American Homes as well. "The systems-built homebuilding industry is an important customer base for Merillat," he said. "We understand the dynamics not only of the home buyer, but also the processes to support a production operation."

Homes built by All American Homes, LLC meet or exceed all national, state and local building codes. They are designed and constructed for placement on traditional site-built home foundations in residential neighborhoods or rural locations. Founded in 1970, All American Homes has production facilities in Decatur, Ind.; Dyersville, Iowa; Milliken, Colo.; Osage City, Kan.; Rutherfordton, N.C.; Springfield, Tenn. and Zanesville, Ohio. Mod-U-Kraf Homes, a division of All American Homes, is located in Rocky Mount, Va. All American Homes is a subsidiary of Elkhart, Ind.-based Coachmen Industries, Inc.

Coachmen Industries, Inc., founded in 1964, is one of America's leading manufacturers of recreational vehicles, systems-built homes and commercial buildings, with prominent subsidiaries in each industry. The Company's well-known RV brand names include COACHMEN® , GEORGIE BOY TM , SPORTSCOACH® and VIKING®. Through ALL AMERICAN HOMES®, Coachmen is one of the nation's largest producers of systems-built homes, and also a major builder of commercial structures with its ALL AMERICAN BUILDING SYSTEMS TM and MILLER BUILDING SYSTEMS TM products. Prodesign, LLC, produces custom thermoformed plastic parts for numerous industries under the PRODESIGN® brand. Coachmen Industries, Inc. is a publicly held company with stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker COA.

For more information:
Mike Donley, Marketing Manager, All American Homes, LLC
260-724-8044 (Decatur, Ind.)
mdonley@allamericanhomes.com
www.allamericanhomes.com

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