Spartan Motors, Inc. announced it has purchased the assets of General Truck Body and will begin operating a production facility located in Montebello, Calif.

Going forward, the facility will be used to manufacture and assemble custom aluminum and composite-side truck bodies, refrigerated trucks, stake body trucks, curtain side and moving vans, last-mile delivery vehicles and upfits, and other Work Driven Design vocational solutions across GVWR Class 1 through Class 7. GTB joins Spartan's Fleet Vehicles and Services business unit and will go-to-market under the Utilimaster brand.     

The purchase of General Truck Body assets immediately expands Spartan Motors' truck body manufacturing operations into California while enhancing refrigerated vehicle production capabilities and grants customers access to additional truck and van body types. Augmenting Spartan's recent East Coast expansion, the addition of this Southern California manufacturing and assembly facility increases Spartan and Utilimaster's product portfolio and effectively grants customers efficient, cost-competitive build-and-ship capabilities from coast-to-coast.

"We are proud to welcome General Truck Body employees and customers to the Spartan family," said Daryl Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer of Spartan Motors.  "This facility effectively provides Spartan and Utilimaster with a West Coast truck body operation that expands our footprint to better serve current and prospective customers in the region.  We've bolstered our East Coast presence over the past several months, and this West Coast facility means we can now competitively sell and service commercial and retail vehicles across the entire U.S. We expect the transaction to be accretive on an annualized basis in 2020."